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YALE  LECTURES  ON  THE 
RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  CITIZENSHIP 


CONDITIONS   OF   PROGRESS    IN 
DEMOCRATIC   GOVERNMENT 


YALE  LECTURES  ON   THE 

RESPONSIBILITIES  OF  CITIZENSHIP 

(uniform  with  this  volume) 


THE  HINDRANCES  TO  GOOD  CITIZENSHIP 

By  the  Right  Hon.  JAMES   BRYCE 

BRITISH   AMBASSADOR  TO  THE  UNITED   STATES 

A  SCHOLARLY  AND   SUGGESTIVE  VOLUME  ON  THE 
IMPEDIMENTS  TO   GOOD  CITIZENSHIP 

"  The  book  should  have  a  place  by  the  side  of  '  The  American 
Commonwealth '  —  no  higher  place  were  possible." 

—  Worcester  Evening  Gazette. 

(Second  printing.)      138  pages,  index,  12mo.     SI.  15  net. 
Postage  10  cents. 


30 


4  40oz 


CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS  IN 
DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT 


BY 


CHARLES  EVANS  HUGHES 


new  haven:  tale  university  press 

london:  henry  frowde 

oxford  university  press 

MCMX 


Copyright,  1910 

BY 

Yalb  University  Press 


fat*  r-  k*  &tct<^  4 


3 


Printed  in  the  United  States 


CONDITIONS   OF   PROGRESS   IN 
DEMOCRATIC   GOVERNMENT 


LECTURE   I 

INTRODUCTION 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  of  Yale  Uni- 
versity: 

To  you  who  are  enjoying  academic  advantages 
and  especially  to  those  of  you  who  are  devoting 
yourselves  to  the  study  of  history  and  political 
science,  it  must  seem  presumptuous  for  one  who  is 
under  the  pressure  of  the  exacting  duties  of  execu- 
tive office  to  attempt  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  a  university  lectureship.  The  invitation,  with 
which  I  have  been  honoured,  and  my  acceptance  of 
it,  can  be  justified  only  upon  the  ground  that  the 
chief  intention  of  the  founder  of  this  course  of  lec- 
tures was  not  to  invite  scholastic  disquisition,  but 
rather  to  quicken  in  young  men  the  sense  of  civic 
responsibility,  and  that  this  object  might  to  some 
degree  be  attained  if  one  in  the  midst  of  public 
work  should  seek  to  draw,  though  only  in  outline, 
a  sketch  of  the  field  of  endeavour,  or  privilege,  of 
obligation. 

I  shall  make,  therefore,  no  effort  to  discuss  the- 


2  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

ories  of  governmental  systems,  or  to  present  an 
essay  in  constitutional  history.  In  speaking  of 
the  responsibilities  of  citizenship,  under  the  title 
of  "  Conditions  of  Progress  in  Democratic  Gov- 
ernment," I  can  give  you  only  a  point  of  view. 
I  shall  first  speak  on  "The  Attitude  of  the  Indi- 
vidual," and  later  on  "Administrative  Efficiency," 
and  "Political  Parties." 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  3 

THE   ATTITUDE    OF   THE   INDIVIDUAL 

The  responsibilities  of  citizenship  must  not  be 
regarded  as  limited  to  voting,  to  the  use  of  elec- 
toral machinery,  or  to  participation  in  political 
campaigns.  These  are  simply  methods  to  secure 
the  expression  of  public  opinion  which  is  the  final 
authority.  Opportunity  and  the  responsibility 
which  it  measures,  with  respect  to  citizenship,  are 
to  be  determined  not  merely  by  particular  polit- 
ical rights,  but  by  one's  relation  to  the  ultimate 
power  which  upholds  or  changes  constitutions, 
makes  laws,  fixes  the  quality  of  administration  and 
assures  or  prevents  progress. 

Many  are  disturbed  by  the  thought  of  the  mul- 
titude of  the  unlettered  and  the  regrettable  number 
of  besotted  or  debased  who  enjoy  the  equal  privi- 
lege of  the  suffrage;  and  their  own  privilege  and 
obligation  are  thus  cast  into  disesteem.  But  this 
reflection  should  rather  quicken  the  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility and  heighten  the  appreciation  of  oppor- 
tunity. It  is  not  merely  that  if  one  is  dismayed 
by  the  number  of  others  who  count,  he  should  be 
sure  to  count.  This  is  a  sobering  thought,  but 
there  is  much  more.  Equality  of  civil  right  secures 
necessary  freedom  of  expression;  but  back  of  the 


4  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

votes  are  the  influences  which  determine  the  votes, 
—  the  varied  forces  which  produce  conviction  and 
create  public  sentiment.  It  is  the  extent  to  which 
one  contributes,  or  may  contribute,  to  these  influ- 
ences that  measures  political  power. 

The  responsibilities  of  citizenship,  then,  embrace 
all  those  acts  or  possible  acts,  all  those  habits  or 
attitudes,  which  express  the  totality  of  one's  pos- 
sible contributions  to  the  formation  of  public 
opinion  and  to  the  maintenance  of  proper  stand- 
ards of  civic  conduct.  Power  and  responsibility 
are  to  be  judged  not  by  the  single  vote,  but  by 
the  indefinable  influence  radiating  from  person- 
ality, varying  with  moral  perception,  knowledge, 
acumen,  experience,  and  environment,  and  capable 
of  being  lessened  or  increased,  as  one  shrinks  his 
individuality  or  expands  his  life  and  throws  his 
full  weight  as  a  growing  man  of  noble  purpose 
into  the  civic  scale. 

When  one  is  about  to  loose  the  ties  of  delightful 
association  in  college  and  to  face  a  world  of  com- 
petitive efforts,  he  naturally  asks  himself,  "What 
is  to  be  my  lot  in  life?"  "Where  shall  I  find  a 
chance  to  prove  what  I  can  do?"  "How  shall  I 
win  for  myself  a  place  of  security  protected  by  my 
energy  or   ingenuity  or  thrift   from   the   possible 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  5 

assaults  of  misfortune?"  "How  can  I  achieve  a 
competence  or  a  fortune,  or  distinction?"  For 
many,  perhaps  most,  young  men,  the  pressure  of 
necessity  is  so  strong,  or  ambition  is  so  keen  or 
the  vision  of  opportunity  is  so  alluring  that  these 
questions  seem  to  transcend  all  others  and  too 
frequently  suggest  the  dominant  motive. 

But  there  is  another  question,  too  rarely  defined 
in  conscious  self-discipline,  yet  urged  by  a  myriad 
of  voices  whose  appeal  dimly  heard  in  the  medley 
and  confusion  of  the  market-place  sounds  the  deep 
tone  of  democracy,  —  "What  shall  be  my  attitude 
toward  the  community?"  "How  shall  I  relate 
myself  to  that  struggling,  achieving  mass  of 
humanity,  —  the  people  of  this  great  country? " 
"What  part  shall  I  play,  not  as  a  unit  fighting 
other  units  for  individual  advantage,  but  as  a 
citizen  of  a  Republic?" 

Probably  every  one  of  you  has  been  impressed 
with  the  forces  of  progress.  I  do  not  refer  merely 
to  those  represented  in  production  and  exchange, 
significant  as  are  these  activities  of  an  energetic 
and  talented  people.  The  large  success  and  expan- 
sion of  industry,  the  increase  of  wants  and  the  abil- 
ity to  supply  them,  the  extraordinary  development 
in    facilities    of    communication,    are    a    sufficient 


6  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

answer  to  any  who  would  speak  of  decadence  in 
energy  or  will.  But  even  more  significant  are  the 
multiplying  indications  of  earnest  desire  for  the 
betterment  of  community  life.  I  refer  to  the  fine 
endeavours  that  are  being  made  to  extend  and  per- 
fect the  means  of  education;  to  improve  conditions 
of  labour;  to  secure  better  housing  and  sanitation; 
to  stay  the  ravages  of  communicable  disease;  to 
provide  proper  care  for  the  afflicted  and  defective 
in  body  and  mind;  to  increase  reformatory  agencies 
and  to  improve  penal  methods  to  the  end  that 
society  may  protect  itself  without  the  travesty  of 
making  its  prisons  schools  of  crime;  to  secure 
higher  standards  of  public  service  and  a  higher 
sense  of  loyalty  to  the  common  weal. 

Slight  consideration  of  the  course  of  these  en- 
deavours emphasizes  the  lesson  that  progress  is 
not  a  blessing  conferred  from  without.  It  merely 
expresses  the  gains  of  individual  efforts  in  counter- 
acting the  sinister  and  corrupting  influences  which, 
if  successful,  would  make  democratic  institutions 
impossible.  Gratifying  as  is  the  vast  extent  and 
variety  of  our  accomplishment,  one  cannot  be 
insensible  to  the  dangers  to  which  we  are  exposed. 
No  greater  mistake  can  be  made  than  to  think 
that  our  institutions  are  fixed  or  may  not  be  changed 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  7 

for  the  worse.  We  are  a  young  nation  and  nothing 
can  be  taken  for  granted.  If  our  institutions  are 
maintained  in  their  integrity,  and  if  change  shall 
mean  improvement,  it  will  be  because  the  intelli- 
gent and  the  worthy  constantly  generate  the  motive 
power  which,  distributed  over  a  thousand  lines  of 
communication,  develops  that  appreciation  of  the 
standards  of  decency  and  justice  which  we  have 
delighted  to  call  the  common  sense  of  the  Amer- 
ican people. 

Increasing  prosperity  tends  to  breed  indifference 
and  to  corrupt  moral  soundness.  Glaring  inequal- 
ities in  condition  create  discontent  and  strain  the 
democratic  relation.  The  vicious  are  the  willing, 
and  the  ignorant  are  the  unconscious  instruments 
of  political  artifice.  Selfishness  and  demagoguery 
take  advantage  of  liberty.  The  selfish  hand  con- 
stantly seeks  to  control  government,  and  every 
increase  of  governmental  power,  even  to  meet  just 
needs,  furnishes  opportunity  for  abuse  and  stimu- 
lates the  effort  to  bend  it  to  improper  uses.  Free 
speech  voices  the  appeals  of  hate  and  envy  as  well 
as  those  of  justice  and  charity.  A  free  press  is 
made  the  instrument  of  cunning,  greed,  and  ambi- 
tion, as  well  as  the  agency  of  enlightened  and 
independent  opinion.     How  shall  we  preserve  the 


8  CONDITIONS   OF  PROGRESS 

supremacy  of  virtue  and  the  soundness  of  the 
common  judgment?  How  shall  we  buttress  De- 
mocracy? The  peril  of  this  Nation  is  not  in  any 
foreign  foe!  We,  the  people,  are  its  power,  its 
peril,  and  its  hope! 

The  causes  of  indifference  to  the  obligations  of 
citizenship  may  be  traced  in  part  to  the  optimistic 
feeling  that  nothing  can  go  seriously  wrong  with 
us.  This  may  indeed  spring  from  belief  in  the  intel- 
ligence and  moral  worth  of  the  people,  but  that 
belief  has  ground  only  as  there  are  predominant 
evidences  of  a  growing  sense  of  the  duties  imposed 
by  democratic  government,  of  an  appreciation  of 
responsibility  enlarging  apace  with  the  seductions 
that  are  incident  to  material  advancement.  There 
is  also  the  difficulty  of  realizing  that  government 
is  not  something  apart  from  us,  or  above  us,  that 
it  is  we  ourselves  organized  in  a  grand  co-operative 
effort  to  protect  mutual  rights  and  to  secure  com- 
mon opportunity  and  improvement.  More  potent 
still  is  the  feeling  of  helplessness  in  the  presence 
of  organized  agencies  which,  with  their  effective 
combinations  based  upon  mutual  interest,  seem  to 
make  of  slight  consequence  the  efforts  of  citizens 
who  are  not  members  of  inner  circles  of  power. 
But    no    organized    agency    and    no    combination, 


IN  DEMOCRATIC   GOVERNMENT  9 

however  strong,  can  outrage  the  rights  of  any  com- 
munity, if  the  community  sees  fit  to  assert  them. 
The  character  of  the  agencies  of  the  community, 
its  instruments  of  expression,  the  forms  of  its 
organized  effort  are  simply  what  it  may  desire  or 
tolerate.  Whatever  evil  may  exist  in  society  or 
politics,  simply  points  the  question  to  the  individual 
citizen,  "What  are  you  doing  about  it?" 

Before  we  deal  with  particular  problems  and 
relations,  I  desire  to  consider  the  fundamental 
question  of  attitude  and  the  principles  of  action 
which  must  be  regarded  as  essential  to  the  faith- 
ful discharge  of  the  civic  duties. 

It  is  of  first  importance  that  there  should  be 
sympathy  with  democratic  ideals.  I  do  not  refer 
to  the  conventional  attitude  commonly  assumed 
in  American  utterances  and  always  taken  on 
patriotic  occasions.  I  mean  the  sincere  love  of 
Democracy.  As  Montesquieu  says:  "A  love  of  the 
republic  in  a  democracy  is  a  love  of  the  democ- 
racy; as  the  latter  is  that  of  equality." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  find  an  association  in 
which  wealth,  or  family,  or  station  are  of  less  con- 
sequence, and  in  which  a  young  man  is  appraised 
more  nearly  at  his  actual  worth,  than  in  an  Amer- 
ican  college.     Despite   the   increase   of   luxury   in 


10  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

college  living,  the  number  of  rich  men's  sons  who 
frequent  these  institutions,  and  the  amount  of 
money  lavishly  and  foolishly  expended,  our  col- 
leges are  still  wholesomely  democratic.  A  young 
man  who  is  decent,  candid,  and  honourable  in  his 
dealings,  will  not  suffer  because  he  is  poor,  or  his 
parents  are  obscure,  and  the  fact  that  he  may  earn 
his  living  in  humble  employment  in  order  to  pay 
for  his  education  will  not  cost  him  the  esteem  of 
his  fellows.  He  will  be  rated,  as  the  rich  man's 
son  will  be  rated,  at  the  worth  of  his  character, 
judged  by  the  standards  of  youth  which  maintain 
truth  and  fair  dealing  and  will  not  tolerate  cant  or 
sham.  This  is  so  largely  true  that  it  may  be  treated 
as  the  rule,  and  regrettable  departures  from  it  as 
the  exception. 

But  a  larger  sympathy  and  appreciation  are 
needed.  The  young  man  who  goes  out  into  life 
favourably  disposed  toward  those  who  have  had 
much  the  same  environment  and  opportunity  may 
still  be  lacking  in  the  broader  sympathy  which 
should  embrace  all  his  fellow-countrymen.  He  may 
be  tolerant  and  democratic  with  respect  to  those 
who,  despite  differences  in  birth  and  fortune,  he 
may  regard  as  kindred  spirits,  and  yet  in  his 
relation  to  men  at  large,  to  the  great  majority  of 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  11 

his  fellow  beings,  be  little  better  than  a  snob.  Or 
despite  the  camaraderie  of  college  intercourse  he 
may  have  developed  a  cynical  disposition  or  an 
intellectual  aloofness  which,  while  not  marked 
enough  to  interfere  with  success  in  many  vocations, 
or  to  disturb  his  conventional  relations,  largely 
disqualifies  him  from  aiding  his  community  as  a 
public-spirited  citizen.  The  primary  object  of 
education  is  to  emancipate;  to  free  from  supersti- 
tion, from  the  tyranny  of  worn-out  notions,  from 
the  prejudices,  large  and  small,  which  enslave  the 
judgment.  His  study  of  history  and  of  the  insti- 
tutions of  his  country  has  been  to  little  purpose 
if  the  college  man  has  not  caught  the  vision  of 
Democracy  and  has  not  been  joined  by  the  troth 
of  heart  and  conscience  to  the  great  human  brother- 
hood which  is  working  out  its  destiny  in  this  land 
of  opportunity. 

The  true  citizen  will  endeavour  to  understand 
the  different  racial  viewpoints  of  the  various  ele- 
ments which  enter  into  our  population.  He  will 
seek  to  divest  himself  of  antipathy  or  prejudice 
toward  any  of  those  who  have  come  to  us  from 
foreign  lands,  and  he  will  try,  by  happy  illustration 
in  his  own  conduct,  to  hasten  appreciation  of  the 
American  ideal.     For  him  "American"  will  ever  be 


12  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

a  word  of  the  spirit  and  not  of  the  flesh.  Differ- 
ence in  custom  or  religion  will  not  be  permitted  to 
obscure  the  common  human  worth,  nor  will  bigotry 
of  creed  or  relation  prevent  a  just  appraisement. 
The  pitiful  revelations  of  ignorance  and  squalor, 
of  waste  and  folly,  will  not  sap  his  faith.  He  will 
patiently  seek  truly  to  know  himself  and  others, 
and  with  fraternal  insight  to  enter  into  the  world's 
work,  to  share  the  joys  of  accomplishment,  and  to 
help  in  the  bearing  of  the  burdens  of  misery.  He 
will  be  free  from  the  prejudice  of  occupation  or  of 
residence.  He  will  not  look  askance  either  at  city 
or  at  country.  For  him  any  honest  work  will  be 
honourable,  and  those  who  are  toiling  with  their 
hands  will  not  be  merely  economic  factors  of  work, 
but  human  beings  of  like  passions  and  possessed 
of  the  "certain  unalienable  rights."  Neither  birth 
nor  station,  neither  circumstance  nor  vocation,  will 
win  or  prevent  the  esteem  to  which  fidelity,  hon- 
esty, and  sincerity  are  alone  entitled.  He  will 
look  neither  up  nor  down,  but  with  even  eye  will 
seek  to  read  the  hearts  of  men. 

This  sense  of  sympathetic  relation  should  in- 
crease respect  both  for  individual  interests  and 
for  community  interests  and  should  give  a  better 
understanding  of  what  is  involved  in  each.     They 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  13 

are  not  in  opposition;  properly  speaking  they  cannot 
be  divorced.  By  individual  interests  I  mean  those 
interests  which  concern  the  normal  development  of 
the  individual  life,  which  relate  to  freedom  in  choice 
of  work  and  individual  pursuits,  to  the  conservation 
of  opportunities  for  the  play  of  individual  talent 
and  initiative,  to  the  enjoyment  of  property  hon- 
estly acquired.  The  liberty  of  the  individual  in 
communities  must  of  course  be  restrained  by  the 
mutual  requirements  imposed  upon  each  by  the  equal 
rights  of  others,  and  by  the  demands  of  the  com- 
mon welfare.  It  may  be  difficult  to  define  the 
precise  limitations  of  such  restrictions,  but  the  guid- 
ing principle  must  be  that  the  common  interest 
cannot  be  preserved  if  individual  incentive  is  para- 
lyzed, and  that  to  preserve  individual  incentive 
there  must  be  scope  for  individual  effort  freely 
expended  along  lines  freely  chosen  and  crowned 
by  advantages  individually  acquired  and  held. 
There  is  no  alchemy  which  can  transmute  the  pov- 
erty of  individual  hope  into  communal  riches. 
Restrictions,  to  be  justified,  must  be  such  as  are 
essential  to  the  maintenance  of  wholesome  life 
and  to  prevent  the  liberty  of  some  from  accomplish- 
ing the  enthraldom  of  all. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  claim  of  individual 


14  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

rights  has  so  frequently  been  asserted  in  the  effort 
to  protect  unlawful  gains  and  systematic  pillaging 
of  the  community  through  abuse  of  public  privi- 
leges. The  wolf  appears  in  sheep's  clothing.  The 
influence  of  just  conservatism  has  often  been  lost, 
because  so  many  wrongs  parade  in  its  livery.  If  no  one 
were  endeavouring  to  defend  extortion  and  inade- 
quate public  service  by  the  pretence  of  individual 
rights,  if  it  were  not  sought  to  add  to  normal 
opportunities,  abnormal  and  improper  advantages 
obtained  through  special  privilege,  there  would  be 
far  less  disposition  to  press  restrictions  in  the 
interest  of  the  general  community.  But  abuses 
should  not  blind  us  to  good  uses.  And  in  prescrib- 
ing the  area  of  individual  opportunity  we  must 
remember  ever  to  prize  as  the  essential  condition 
of  progress  and  human  happiness  the  differentia- 
tion of  effort  based  upon  aptitude  and  the  incentive 
to  endeavour  supplied  by  the  enjoyment  of  the 
recompense  won  under  honourable  conditions. 

Almost  every  man  is  solicitous  for  individual 
rights  when  he  is  thinking  of  his  own.  The  true 
concern  is  for  the  interests  of  the  individual  as 
such,  for  that  of  another  as  well  as  for  my  own; 
that  in  the  individual  life  of  each  member  of  soci- 
ety there  should  be  zest  and  aspiration,  and  to  all 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  15 

opportunity.  Now,  to  maintain  conditions  which 
assure  a  fair  field  to  all  and  protect  each  one  from 
exploitation  in  the  interest  of  those  who  may  be 
entrusted  with  the  operations  of  government,  the 
people  must  have  a  keen  sense  of  their  collective 
interests.  No  one  can  properly  discharge  his 
duties  as  a  citizen  who  simply  has  a  good-natured 
feeling  toward  all,  and  merely  wishes  in  a  general 
way  that  every  man  shall  prosper.  This  desire 
must  be  sharpened  by  a  consideration  of  particular 
evils,  and  one  must  understand  the  necessity  of 
co-operative  vigilance.  He  must  learn  to  make 
his  personal  decisions,  as  well  as  to  define  his  public 
attitude,  in  the  light  of  the  interests  of  the  commun- 
ity and  not  simply  with  respect  to  the  opportu- 
nities for  his  individual  gain.  No  allurement  of 
high  salary  or  of  social  advantage,  no  promise  of 
assistance  to  obtain  public  office,  should  he  permit 
to  obscure  his  duty  of  absolute  loyalty  to  the  public 
interest.  Trying  to  cheat  the  public  is  a  game  that 
is  constantly  being  played,  and  if  there  is  anything 
that  is  more  dishonourable  that  can  be  thought  of 
in  one  who  has  had  the  advantages  of  the  higher 
institutions  of  learning,  I  do  not  know  what  it  is. 
Sometimes  it  takes  gross  forms  and  falls  clearly 
within  the  provisions  of  the  penal  law.    But  the 


16  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

citizen  should  have  a  higher  notion  of  public  duty 
than  simply  to  keep  out  of  jail.  It  is  the  less 
obvious  and  more  subtle  forms  of  treachery  to  the 
common  interest  against  which  the  community 
must  be  constantly  on  its  guard  and  from  which 
the  high-minded  citizen  will  seek  to  keep  his  own 
life  free.  It  is  well  to  advise  young  men  to  vote 
and  to  take  an  active  part  in  political  affairs,  but 
it  is  just  as  important,  indeed  more  important, 
that  they  should  understand  that  their  first  duty 
is  so  to  conduct  themselves  in  pursuing  the  aims 
of  their  individual  careers  that  they  will  never 
prove  false  to  their  allegiance  to  the  community. 
An  intense  consciousness  of  public  relation  should 
restrain  the  lawyer  when  he  is  tempted  to  go  beyond 
his  professional  duty  of  presenting  clearly  and 
cogently  the  facts  and  arguments  in  favour  of  his 
client  and  to  seek  by  trick  or  device  to  delay  or 
defeat  justice.  It  should  make  it  impossible  for 
managers  of  corporations  to  defend  what  they 
may  believe  to  be  their  interests,  either  by  paying 
blackmail  or  by  endeavouring  improperly  to  solicit 
the  representatives  of  the  people.  It  should  stay 
the  hand  which  would  write  surreptitious  clauses 
in  legislative  bills  or  seek  to  secure  privilege  at 
public  expense  by  indirection.     It  should  give  rise 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  17 

to  the  same  sense  of  honour  in  dealings  which  may 
affect  the  public  as  animates  the  true  gentleman 
in  his  private  relations.  With  respect  to  every 
governmental  relation  there  is  need  to  stimulate  the 
sentiment  which  appreciates  the  common  interest, 
demands  its  recognition,  and  prompts  one  to  yield 
to  it  ungrudgingly,  though  it  come  in  conflict  with 
individual  ambition. 

There  will  be  sincere  debate  as  to  where  the  line 
of  demarcation  between  proper  private  enterprise 
and  public  duty  should  be  drawn.  But  the  field 
is  so  large  in  which  the  supremacy  of  public  inter- 
est is  theoretically  admitted,  that  it  is  of  the  utmost 
practical  importance  to  cultivate  the  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility as  to  these  recognized  collective  rights, 
and  to  make  it  no  less  keen  than  that  which  is 
felt  with  regard  to  the  rights  of  the  individual. 

The  increase  of  population  has  revealed  the  neces- 
sity for  many  protective  measures.  In  the  early 
days  the  hardy  pioneer  penetrated  the  forests  and 
was  compelled  to  make  a  clearing  in  order  that  he 
might  establish  a  settlement.  The  sound  of  the 
axe  was  the  first  note  of  approaching  civilization. 
The  woods  were  a  barrier  to  be  destroyed.  But 
when  settlements  multiplied  and  population  in- 
creased and  the  forests  had  largely  disappeared, 


18  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

we  awoke  to  a  realization  that  in  the  wooded  hills 
was  nature's  choicest  gift,  with  the  preservation 
of  which  is  linked  our  future  prosperity.  The 
interests  of  all  demand  that  we  should  acquire  and 
cherish  a  collective  right,  and  that  individual  oppor- 
tunity so  far  as  it  may  threaten  the  maintenance 
of  our  forests  should  be  taken  away.  Until  recently 
little  thought  has  been  paid  to  our  water-courses. 
They  have  been  regarded  as  the  natural  conduits 
for  human  and  industrial  wastes;  but  as  our  growth 
threatens  to  make  them  mere  sewers,  the  necessity 
for  the  assertion  of  collective  rights,  in  order  that 
our  streams  may  remain  wholesome,  has  become 
apparent.  We  are  giving  attention  to  the  safe- 
guarding of  public  health  by  segregating  disease 
and  limiting  the  opportunities  of  contagion.  The 
great  white  plague  takes  toll  of  the  energy  and 
economic  efficiency  of  this  country  with  an  appalling 
death-rate  which  may  be  largely  reduced  by  insist- 
ence on  suitable  precautions.  The  public  is  entitled 
to  protection  from  the  adulteration  of  foods,  from 
impurities  in  water,  milk,  meat,  and  other  essential 
supplies.  In  our  large  communities  no  one  can  live 
unto  himself.  The  condition  of  the  tenement  is  a 
matter  of  consequence  not  simply  to  those  who 
live  in  it,  and  sanitary  safeguards  are  essential  to 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  19 

the  interest  of  all.  We  are  learning  to  appreciate 
our  interdependence  with  respect  to  industrial  effi- 
ciency. If  we  are  to  progress  as  a  nation  we 
must  take  care  of  childhood.  We  must  not  only 
protect  it  against  disease  and  secure  child  life 
from  injurious  or  too  early  occupation,  but  we 
must  also  provide,  in  breathing  space  and  play- 
grounds, for  a  wholesome  youth  fitted  to  enter 
into  the  activities  of  our  expanding  life.  The 
maintenance  of  decent  conditions  of  labour  and  of 
safeguards  against  loss  of  life  and  limb  are  in  the 
interest  of  industrial  progress  and  the  achievement 
of  a  larger  general  prosperity.  Schemes  of  public 
education  are  being  modified  by  the  introduction 
of  trade  schools  and  increased  opportunity  for 
vocational  training.  There  has  also  arisen  an 
irresistible  demand  that  better  means  should  be 
provided  for  the  enforcement  of  public  rights; 
that  the  creatures  of  the  State  receiving  privileges 
from  the  public  should  be  compelled  to  obey  the 
laws  of  their  being.  Protest  against  inadequate 
service,  the  scandals  that  have  arisen  from  the 
laying  of  excessive  burdens  upon  the  public,  in 
order  to  pay  dividends  upon  inflated  issues  of  secu- 
rities, have  resulted  in  the  conviction  that  there 
must  be  suitable  machinery  for  scrutinizing   and 


20  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

determining  the  propriety  of  issues  of  stocks  and 
bonds,  for  the  prompt  examination  of  complaints 
as  to  the  performance  of  public  duty,  for  suitable 
investigation  of  complicated  facts  relating  to  rates, 
charges,  and  service,  to  the  end  that  through  com- 
petent means  the  public  right  should  be  enforced. 
These  are  important  illustrations  of  the  movement 
in  the  direction  of  better  protection  of  the  interests 
of  the  community. 

The  lover  of  democracy  will  have  no  desire  to 
see  the  tyranny  of  despots  replaced  by  the  tyranny 
of  a  majority  taking  unto  itself  the  conduct  of 
individual  life  and  the  destruction  of  its  hope. 
He  knows  that  no  community  can  be  free  if  its 
members  are  deprived  of  liberty.  But  he  also 
knows  that  he  will  utterly  fail  to  find  the  sure  basis 
for  his  liberty,  under  our  social  conditions,  in  his 
independent  action,  and  that  this  foundation  must 
be  secured  by  intelligent  co-operation.  To  save 
society  from  overreaching  and  impoverishing  itself 
by  arbitrary  interference  and  at  the  same  time  to 
uphold  the  public  right  as  supreme,  to  secure  the 
benefits  of  collective  effort  while  wisely  safeguarding 
individual  opportunity  and  initiative,  is  the  patri- 
otic and  difficult  task  which  should  enlist  the  best 
thought  and  unselfish  endeavour   of  every  citizen 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  21 

who  appreciates  the  advantages  and  the  dangers 
of  the  Republic. 

In  all  its  efforts,  democracy  will  make  progress  in 
the  degree  that  the  people  cultivate  the  patience 
and  steadiness  of  justice.  The  obligations  of 
citizenship  are  not  to  be  met  by  spasmodic  out- 
bursts or  by  feverish  demonstrations  of  public 
interest.  It  is  true  that  we  make  our  most  impor- 
tant choices  of  the  representatives  of  the  people 
amid  the  tumult  of  exaggerated  and  interested 
appeals.  To  a  superficial  observer  the  excitements 
of  a  political  campaign  would  seem  to  imply  the 
dethronement  of  reason.  But  it  is  to  the  credit 
of  our  people  that  they  are  so  largely  deliberative 
and  have  proved  themselves  so  well  able  to  sift 
the  chaff  from  the  wheat  in  political  arguments, 
and  are  so  skilful  in  following  the  thread  of  truth 
through  the  maze  of  prejudiced  assertion  and  cun- 
ning perversion.  If  we  were  governed  by  gusts 
of  passion  and  lost  our  heads  in  the  turmoil  of 
political  strife,  our  freedom  would  be  a  travesty. 

The  desire  to  know  the  truth  and  to  deal  fairly 
with  men  and  measures  is  of  the  essence  of  good 
citizenship.  The  most  dangerous  foes  of  democratic 
government  are  those  who  seek  through  special 
privilege  to  pervert  it  to  selfish  uses,   and  those 


22  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

who,  by  reckless,  untruthful,  and  inflammatory 
utterances,  corrupt  the  public  sentiment.  The  more 
dangerous  is  the  latter.  For  the  motive  power 
of  any  remedial  effort  must  be  found  in  public 
opinion,  and  to  achieve  good  results  it  must  be 
just.  There  are  those  who  take  a  poor  view  of 
our  prospects  because  of  the  recklessness  of  the 
sensational  press.  It  is  difficult  for  them  to  con- 
ceive that  the  community  can  steady  itself  against 
these  constant  and  insidious  assaults  upon  its 
judgment  and  sense  of  proportion.  If  indeed  the 
people  believed  all  they  read  and  their  mental 
attitude  and  emphasis  were  accurately  reflected 
in  headlines  and  type,  it  would  seem  cause  for 
despair.  But  those  who  are  pessimistic  with  regard 
to  the  influence  of  certain  portions  of  the  press 
fail  to  take  account  of  the  many  forces  that  deter- 
mine public  sentiment.  The  habit  of  exaggera- 
tion furnishes  to  a  large  degree  its  own  corrective, 
and  its  sensational  exhibitions  are  taken  seriously 
by  few.  The  average  man  is  very  curious,  and  the 
fact  that  his  curiosity  will  tempt  him  to  buy  and 
read  does  not  necessarily  indicate  that  what  he 
has  read  has  made  much  of  an  impression.  Men 
are  in  constant  communication  with  each  other, 
in  the  shop,  in  the  office,  in  going  to  and  from  their 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  23 

work,  in  the  family,  in  their  varied  social  relations, 
and  in  this  intercourse  information  and  opinions 
derived  from  many  sources  are  freely  interchanged. 
Their  experience  of  life  largely  determines  their 
point  of  view.  What  is  read  with  regard  to  men 
and  measures  is  generally  accepted  or  rejected  not 
upon  mere  assertion,  but  as  it  may  or  may  not  accord 
with  the  general  opinions  which  experience  has 
produced.  This  fact  points  the  lesson  that  the 
most  serious  consequences  of  breaches  of  public 
trust  and  of  corruption  in  high  places  are  not  to 
be  found  in  the  particular  injuries  inflicted,  but 
in  the  undermining  of  the  public  confidence  and 
in  the  creating  of  a  disposition  to  give  credit  to 
charges  of  similar  offending.  But,  as  has  been  said, 
much  of  reckless  and  disproportionate  statement, 
much  of  malicious  insinuation,  much  of  frenzied 
and  demagogical  appeal,  fails  of  its  mark. 

While  we  may  be  grateful  for  this,  and  fully 
appreciate  that  with  the  spread  of  education  this 
capacity  of  the  people  to  resist  such  assaults  will 
tend  to  increase,  we  cannot  but  be  sensible  of  the 
evil  influence  that  is  actually  exerted.  To  com- 
bat this  and  to  maintain  in  the  community  stand- 
ards of  candour  and  justice  should  be  the  aim  of 
every  citizen. 


24  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

If  it  be  asked  how  an  individual  can  accomplish 
aught  in  this  direction,  it  may  be  answered  that  it 
lies  with  the  individual  to  accomplish  everything. 
The  man  who  demands  the  facts,  who  is  willing 
to  stand  or  fall  by  the  facts,  who  forms  his  convic- 
tions deliberately  and  adheres  to  them  tenaciously, 
who  courts  patient  inquiry  and  "plays  fair,"  is 
a  tower  of  strength  in  any  group  to  which  he  may 
be  related.  We  have  no  greater  advantage  than 
a  free  press  and  the  freedom  of  public  utterance. 
We  would  not  lose  its  benefits  because  of  its  abuses. 
Demagoguery  will  always  have  a  certain  influence, 
and  the  remedy  is  to  be  found  not  in  repression  or 
impatient  denunciation,  but  in  the  multiplication 
of  men  of  intelligence  who  love  justice  and  cannot 
be  stampeded. 

The  citizen  should  contribute  something  more 
than  sympathy  with  democracy,  something  more 
than  respect  for  individual  and  community  inter- 
ests, something  more  than  adherence  to  the  stand- 
ards of  fair  dealing.  Sympathy  and  sentiment 
will  fail  of  practical  effect  without  independence 
of  character.  A  man  owes  it  to  himself  so  to 
conduct  his  life  that  it  be  recognized  that  his  assent 
cannot  be  expected  until  he  has  been  convinced. 
He  should  exhibit  that  spirit  of  self-reliance,  that 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  25 

sense  of  individual  responsibility  in  forming  and 
stating  opinion,  which  proclaims  that  he  is  a  man 
and  not  a  marionette.  This  of  course  is  a  matter 
of  degree  varying  with  personality  and  depends  for 
its  beneficial  effect  upon  intelligence  and  tact. 
None  the  less,  the  emphasis  is  needed.  There  are 
so  many  who  with  respect  to  public  affairs  lead  a 
life  largely  of  self-negation!  They  are  constantly 
registering  far  below  their  capacity  and  never  show 
anything  like  the  accomplishment  for  which  they 
were  constructed  and  equipped.  We  have  too  many 
high-power  vessels  whose  power  is  never  used. 

It  is  constantly  urged  that  men  must  act  in 
groups  and  through  organizations  to  accomplish 
anything.  This  is  obviously  true  and  describes 
such  a  marked  tendency  that  it  is  hardly  necessary 
to  point  the  lesson.  The  difficulty  is  not  to  get 
men  to  act  in  groups  and  through  organization, 
but  to  have  groups  and  organizations  act  properly 
and  wisely  by  reason  of  the  individual  force  and 
independent  strength  of  their  members.  Groups 
and  organizations  constantly  tend  to  represent  the 
influence  and  power  of  one  man  or  a  few  men, 
who  are  followed  not  because  they  are  right,  but 
because  they  lead,  and  who  maintain  themselves 
not  so  much  by  the  propriety  and  worth  of  leader- 


26  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

ship  as  by  their  skill  and  acumen  in  availing  them- 
selves of  the  indifference  of  others  and  by  use  of 
solicitations,  blandishments,  and  patronage.  This 
is  illustrated  in  all  forms  of  association,  and  to  the 
extent  that  it  exists,  the  association  loses  its  strength 
and  capacity  to  accomplish  the  results  for  which 
it  is  intended.  Groups  and  organizations  within 
democracy  depend  upon  the  same  conditions  as 
those  which  underlie  the  larger  society.  If  they 
come  into  the  strong  control  of  a  few  by  reason  of 
the  indifference  and  subservience  of  the  many,  the 
form  is  retained  without  the  substance  and  the 
benefits  of  co-operative  action  are  lost. 

It  is  of  course  a  counsel  of  wisdom  that  men 
should  be  tactful  and  desirous  of  co-operating, 
and  not  in  a  constant  state  of  rebellion  against 
every  effort  at  group  action.  But  men  who  are 
eccentric  and  impossible  are  proof  against  counsel; 
and  their  peculiarities  simply  illustrate  the  excep- 
tional and  abnormal  in  society.  The  normal  man 
naturally  tends  to  work  with  others;  to  him  the 
sentiment  of  loyalty  makes  a  powerful  appeal. 
And  the  counsel  that  is  most  needed  is  that  men  in 
the  necessary  action  of  groups  should  not  lose  their 
individual  power  for  good  by  blind  following. 
The  man  who  would  meet  the  responsibilities  of 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  27 

citizenship  must  determine  that  he  will  endeavour 
justly,  after  availing  himself  of  all  the  privileges 
which  contact  and  study  afford,  to  reach  a  conclu- 
sion which  for  him  is  a  true  conclusion,  and  that 
the  action  of  his  group  shall  if  possible  not  be  taken 
until,  according  to  his  opportunity  and  his  range 
of  influence,  his  point  of  view  has  been  presented 
and  considered.  This  does  not  imply  sheer  obsti- 
nacy or  opinionated  stubbornness.  Progress  con- 
sists of  a  series  of  approximations.  But  it  does 
imply  self-respect,  conscientious  effort  to  be  sound 
in  opinion,  respect  for  similar  efforts  on  the  part 
of  others,  and  accommodations  in  the  sincere 
desire  for  co-operative  achievement  which  shall 
be  rational  and  shall  be  sensibly  determined  in 
the  light  of  all  facts  and  of  all  proposals.  It  also 
implies  that  there  shall  be  no  surrender  that  will 
compromise  personal  integrity  or  honour,  or  barter 
for  gain  or  success  one's  fidelity  to  the  oath  of 
office  or  to  the  obligation  of  public  trust. 

A  consideration  of  the  obstacles  which  are  found 
to  be  successfully  interposed  to  this  course  is  not 
flattering  to  those  of  our  citizens  who  have  had 
the  greatest  advantages.  There  is,  in  the  first 
place,  the  base  feeling  of  fear.  Lawyers  are  afraid 
that  they  will  lose  clients;  bankers,   that  they  will 


28  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

lose  deposits;  ministers,  that  important  pew-holders 
will  withdraw  their  support;  those  who  manage 
public  service  corporations,  that  they  will  suffer 
retaliation.  Throughout  the  community  is  this 
benumbing  dread  of  personal  loss  which  keeps  men 
quiet  and  servile. 

The  first  lesson  for  a  young  man  who  faces  the 
world  with  his  career  in  his  own  hands  is  that  he 
must  be  willing  to  do  without.  The  question  for 
him  at  the  start  and  ever  after  must  be  not  simply 
what  he  wants  to  get,  but  what  he  is  willing  to 
lose.  "Whosoever  shall  lose  his  life  shall  preserve 
it,"  is  the  profoundest  lesson  of  philosophy.  No 
one  can  fight  as  a  good  soldier  the  battles  of 
democracy  who  is  constantly  seeking  cover. 

But  still  more  influential  is  the  desire  to  avoid 
controversy  and  to  let  things  go.  The  average 
American  is  good-hearted,  genial,  and  indisposed 
not  simply  to  provoke  a  quarrel,  but  even  to  enter 
into  a  discussion.  By  the  constant  play  of  his 
humour  he  seeks  to  avoid  sharp  contacts  or  expres- 
sion of  differences.  But  independence  of  convic- 
tion and  the  exercise  of  one's  proper  influence  do 
not  imply  either  ill-nature  or  constant  collisions 
with  opposing  forces.  The  power  of  the  man  who 
is  calm   and  temperate,  just  and  deliberate,  who 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  29 

seeks  to  know  the  truth  and  to  act  according  to 
his  honest  convictions,  is  after  all  not  best  figured 
by  the  force  of  arms,  but  by  the  gracious  influence 
of  sunshine  and  of  rain  and  the  quiet  play  of  the 
beneficent  forces  of  nature.  In  suitably  expressing 
his  individuality,  in  presenting  his  point  of  view, 
he  need  not  sacrifice  his  geniality  or  the  pleasures 
of  companionship  which  are  always  enhanced  by 
mutual  respect. 

Then  there  are  the  fetters  of  accumulated  obli- 
gations. The  strongest  appeal  that  can  be  made  to 
an  American  is  to  his  generous  sense  of  obligation 
because  of  favours  received.  Men  whom  no 
wealth  could  bribe  and  no  promise  could  seduce 
will  fall  in  public  life  victims  to  a  chivalrous 
regard  for  those  who  have  helped  them  climb  to 
public  place.  This  is  because  of  a  strange  inver- 
sion of  values.  The  supposed  private  debt  is 
counted  more  important  than  the  public  duty. 
But  there  are  no  obligations  which  friendship  or 
kindly  action  can  impose  at  the  expense  of  public 
service.  It  is  simply  a  perverted  sentiment  which 
suggests  such  a  demand  or  the  necessity  of  meeting 
it.  It  is  a  strange  notion,  which  courses  in  ethics 
and  the  benefits  of  higher  education  so  frequently 
find  it  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  dislodge. 


30  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

Whether  you  like  it  or  not,  the  majority  will 
rule.  Accept  loyally  the  democratic  principle. 
The  voice  of  the  majority  is  that  neither  of  God 
nor  of  devil,  but  of  men.  Do  not  be  abashed  to 
be  found  with  the  minority,  but  on  the  other 
hand  do  not  affect  superiority  or  make  the  absurd 
mistake  of  thinking  you  are  right  or  entitled  to 
special  credit  merely  because  you  do  not  agree 
with  the  common  judgment.  Your  experience  of 
life  cannot  fail  to  impress  you  with  the  soundness 
of  that  judgment  in  the  long  run,  and  I  believe 
you  will  come  to  put  your  trust,  as  I  do,  in  the  com- 
mon sense  of  the  people  of  this  country,  and  in 
the  verdicts  they  give  after  the  discussions  of  press, 
of  platform  and  of  ordinary  intercourse.  The 
dangers  of  the  overthrow  of  reason  and  of  the  reign 
of  passion  and  prejudice  become  serious  only  as 
resentment  is  kindled  by  abuses  for  which  those 
who  have  no  sympathy  with  popular  government 
and  constantly  decry  what  they  call  "mob  rule" 
are  largely  responsible.  But  whether  the  common 
judgment  shall  exhibit  that  intelligence  and  self- 
restraint  which  have  given  to  our  system  of  gov- 
ernment so  large  a  degree  of  success,  will  depend 
upon  your  attitude  and  that  of  the  young  men 
of  the  country  who  will   determine  the  measure 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  31 

of  capacity  for  self-government   and   progress   in 
the  coming  years. 

Prize  your  birthright  and  let  your  attitude 
toward  all  public  questions  be  characterized  by 
such  sincere  democratic  sympathy,  such  enthusi- 
asm for  the  common  weal,  such  genuine  love  of 
justice,  and  such  force  of  character,  that  your  life 
to  the  full  extent  of  your  talent  and  opportunity 
shall  contribute  to  the  reality,  the  security,  and 
the  beneficence  of  government  by  the  people. 


32  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 


LECTURE  II 

ADMINISTRATIVE  EFFICIENCY 

When  we  cease  to  regard  government  as  an 
abstraction  and  endeavour  to  understand  its  actual 
working,  we  cannot  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the 
rapidly  increasing  extent  of  its  activities.  The 
trouble  with  most  of  our  study  of  civic  government 
in  our  schools  is  that  the  mere  endeavour  to 
memorize  names  of  offices  and  departments  and  to 
be  prompt  with  definitions  of  powers  and  official 
relations,  is  so  great  a  task  that  the  ordinary  stu- 
dent largely  fails  to  get  the  impression  of  a  vital 
and  responsible  relation  to  his  government.  Know- 
ing the  leading  facts  and  divisions  of  administration 
is  of  course  essential  to  the  larger  understanding 
of  the  matter;  but  it  is  this  larger  understanding 
and  sense  of  vital  relation  that  is  the  important 
thing. 

To  make  profitable  the  study  of  detail,  there 
should  first  be  the  comprehensive  view  to  quicken 
interest  in  every  part.  Just  as  the  traveller  will 
climb  a  height  to  command  an  entire  sweep   of 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  33 

range  and  valley  and  to  secure  a  vivid  impression 
of  the  configuration  of  the  whole  to  guide  him  in 
his  more  minute  local  observations,  so  the  intelli- 
gent citizen  should  have  a  vision  of  governmental 
activity,  its  course  and  tendency,  and  thus  find 
greater  zest  and  profit  in  local  surveys. 

A  vast  amount  of  work  is  being  carried  on  by 
representatives  of  the  people  having  defined  func- 
tions. To  have  this  work  well  done  is  nine-tenths 
of  our  task  as  citizens.  The  actual  conduct  of 
government,  as  distinguished  from  its  theoretical 
scheme,  is  the  severest  test  of  democracy.  The 
surest  ground  of  criticism  has  always  been  that  a 
single  individual  "performs  the  duties  which  he 
undertakes  much  better  than  the  government  of 
the  community;"  and  democratic  government  has 
been  unfavourably  compared  with  monarchy  be- 
cause it  is  said  that  the  government  of  an  indi- 
vidual "is  more  consistent,  more  persevering,  more 
accurate  than  that  of  a  multitude,  and  it  is  much 
better  qualified  judiciously  to  discriminate  the 
characters  of  the  men  it  employs."  We  might 
well  afford  to  suffer  some  disadvantage  as  to  this 
for  the  sake  of  certain  conspicuous  benefits,  but 
our  thought  and  energies  should  be  devoted  to  the 
task  of   reducing  the   disadvantage   to   the  mini- 


34  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

mum.  The  larger  part  of  our  political  discussion 
centres  in  legislative  proposal  and  pertains  to  the 
amendment  of  the  law.  But  important  as  improve- 
ment of  the  law  may  be,  it  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  matter  of  chief  consequence  at  all  times 
is  the  conduct  of  government  under  the  laws  that 
we  have. 

The  recent  increase  in  the  activities  of  govern- 
ment is  not  only  notable  in  itself,  but  by  reason  of 
the  prospect  that  is  afforded  of  still  further  increases. 
I  have  already  given  some  illustrations  of  the  pro- 
tective measures  which  have  been  adopted  by  the 
community,  and  what  I  wish  now  to  emphasize  is 
the  transcendent  importance  of  efficiency  in  view 
of  the  extent  of  the  governmental  work  that  is 
required.  We  are  undertaking  new  tasks,  and  even 
with  respect  to  old  categories  governmental  activ- 
ities are  assuming  an  unparalleled  scope. 

The  conservation  of  natural  resources  involves 
the  creation  of  great  preserves,  the  conduct  of 
scientific  forestry  on  a  large  scale,  and  the  control 
and  development  of  water-powers.  Public  works  of 
emormous  proportions  are  undertaken  by  Nation, 
State,  and  City.  At  this  moment  the  Nation  is 
digging  a  canal  through  the  Isthmus  of  Panama; 
the  State  of  New  York  is  expending  without  federal 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  35 

assistance  a  hundred  million  dollars  in  a  canal 
project  which  rivals  that  of  the  Isthmus  in  extent 
and  difficulty;  and  the  city  of  New  York  is  estab- 
lishing a  system  of  water-supply,  based  upon  reser- 
voirs in  the  Catskill  mountains,  at  a  cost  of  upwards 
of  one  hundred  and  sixty  million  dollars.  Plans 
for  extensive  development  in  highway  construction, 
in  irrigation  and  reclamation,  and  in  the  improve- 
ment of  water-ways  are  either  in  progress  or  are 
submitted  for  serious  consideration.  The  protec- 
tion of  the  public  health  in  connection  with  sani- 
tation, purification  of  streams,  and  supervision  of 
food  supplies  requires  not  simply  the  passage  of 
laws,  but  elaborate  provision  for  engineering  work, 
for  inspection,  and  for  the  varied  duties  of  state 
and  local  health  officers. 

The  equipment  of  governmental  departments  or 
bureaus  to  aid  in  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  has 
been  a  marked  feature  of  recent  legislation.  The 
modest  provision  at  first  made  is  generally  found  to 
be  inadequate,  and  in  order  that  the  bureau  may 
accomplish  the  purpose  of  its  creation  the  necessity 
of  an  enlarged  force  becomes  apparent.  The  expan- 
sion of  business  closely  related  to  the  public  interest 
and  the  general  appreciation  of  the  importance  of 
supervision,  increase  the  demands  upon  government 


36  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

and  the  multiplication  of  agents.  The  growth  of 
supervisory  departments  such  as  those  relating  to 
banks  and  insurance  companies,  and  the  creation 
and  the  enlargement  of  the  powers  of  departments 
and  commissions  dealing  with  public  service  cor- 
porations are  especially  noteworthy.  Experience 
has  shown  that  if  public  supervision  and  regulation 
are  to  be  adequate  they  must  be  made  adequate 
by  suitable  administrative  machinery,  and  this 
implies  a  proper  complement  of  public  officers. 
The  promotion  of  agriculture  has  led  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  special  departments,  federal  and  state. 
Agricultural  colleges  have  been  provided;  govern- 
ment stations  prosecute  research  and  conduct 
experimental  farms;  the  effort  is  made  to  dissem- 
inate among  farmers  the  results  of  a  wide  experience; 
and  special  bureaus  of  inspection  and  prosecution 
are  maintained.  Similarly  labour  departments  have 
been  established  in  order  to  make  sure  that  the 
provisions  of  law  for  the  protection  of  labour  do 
not  become  a  dead  letter;  and  these  have  special 
bureaus  for  the  collection  of  statistics,  for  the 
inspection  of  factory  and  mercantile  establishment, 
and  for  mediation  and  arbitration. 

Public   charities,   in  the  technical  sense  of  the 
term,    have   always   made   heavy   demands   upon 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  37 

government,  but  there  has  been  a  remarkable 
increase  of  these  demands  in  the  past  few  years. 
It  is  agreeable  to  note  the  rapidly  growing  number 
of  men  and  women  who  are  interested  in  philan- 
thropy, and  they  are  constantly  studying  means 
of  improvement.  The  old  custodial  methods,  under 
which  the  unfortunate  were  herded  together  with 
slight  regard  for  anything  beyond  segregation,  are 
in  course  of  abandonment.  Modern  philanthropy 
demands  suitable  provision  for  treatment,  for  occu- 
pation, for  recreation.  Youthful  offenders  are  now 
being  placed  on  large  tracts  of  agricultural  land, 
and  are  being  provided  for  in  groups  of  cottages 
where  reformatory  measures  may  be  more  success- 
ful. These  improvements  imply  more  extensive 
plants  and  additional  employees.  New  lines  of 
effort  have  been  entered  upon,  as  for  example  in 
the  State  of  New  York,  in  the  Craig  Colony  for 
Epileptics  at  Sonyea,  in  the  hospital  at  Raybrook 
for  those  suffering  from  incipient  tuberculosis,  in 
the  cancer  laboratory  at  Buffalo.  The  charitable 
and  reformatory  work  of  government  is  being  revo- 
lutionized by  new  ideas,  or  by  old  ideas  aided  through 
the  discoveries  of  science  and  enforced  by  more 
intense  love  of  humanity. 

Relatively  the  increased  burden  of  governmental 


38  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

work  is  heaviest  at  the  weakest  point  of  our  system; 
that  is,  in  our  municipalities,  particularly  in  our 
large  cities.  Municipal  administration  has  had  to 
cope  with  the  demands  due  to  the  rapid  growth 
and  congestion  of  population. 

Now  if  the  citizen  will  realize  this,  and,  not 
content  with  merely  knowing  the  names  of  offices 
and  divisions,  will  try  to  understand  the  import 
of  this  vast  governmental  activity  in  a  democracy, 
he  must  be  convinced  that  efficiency  is  no  longer 
to  be  thought  of  as  simply  a  theoretical  obligation, 
defaults  in  which  entail  only  negligible  losses,  but 
that  it  is  a  practical  matter  of  first  consequence, 
and  that  with  respect  to  the  maintenance  of  its 
proper  standards  each  individual  in  the  community 
should  feel  his  responsibility. 

The  execution  of  the  laws  is  commonly  associated 
with  prosecutions  for  criminal  offences,  for  the 
sanction  of  laws  defining  public  duties  is  generally 
found  in  the  penalties  enforced  in  the  criminal 
courts.  But  the  execution  of  the  laws  involves 
much  more  than  punishment  of  criminal  guilt.  It 
embraces  the  execution  of  a  host  of  measures 
demanding  executive  competence,  careful  manage- 
ment, the  intelligent  use  of  power,  the  just  settle- 
ment of  a  myriad  of  administrative  problems  and 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  39 

the  infusion  of  the  public  service  with  the  spirit 
of  faithful  work.  The  head  of  a  department  should 
not  be,  as  too  frequently  has  been  the  case,  a  merely- 
titular  functionary  who  holds  the  office  for  the  sake 
of  the  salary  and  is  content  with  the  irreducible 
minimum  of  routine  work.  Rather  should  he  be 
one  who,  fitted  by  aptitude  and  training  for  his 
work,  understands  it,  devotes  his  best  energies  to 
it,  is  able  to  evoke  pride  and  zeal  in  deputies  and 
subordinates,  who  constantly  seeks  to  avoid  unneces- 
sary outlays,  to  introduce  talent  into  the  service, 
to  ascertain  flaws  in  the  governmental  machinery, 
and  by  faithful  stewardship  to  make  a  good  showing 
to  his  employers,  the  people.  Public  enterprise 
requires  managerial  capacity  of  a  high  order. 

If  there  were  no  other  reason  for  insisting  upon 
efficiency,  it  should  be  sufficient  to  point  out  that 
the  cost  of  government  is  increasing  at  a  tremendous 
rate.  Inefficiency  is  simply  waste  of  public  money ; 
taxation  to  supply  waste  is  nothing  but  extortion. 
This  not  only  causes  loss  with  respect  to  particular 
outlays;  it  prevents  progress.  Economy  is  not  a 
popular  watchword  with  the  people  at  large.  Cam- 
paign talk  about  the  extravagance  of  government 
has,  in  large  communities,  a  very  limited  effect, 
because   people   generally   fail   to   appreciate   that 


40  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

they  are  paying  the  bills,  and  that  the  real  tax- 
payer is  not  necessarily  the  land-owner  or  the  one 
who  makes  return  to  the  assessor.  But  when  they 
are  denied  public  improvements  to  which  they 
think  they  are  entitled,  they  know  it.  Waste 
which  loads  down  a  budget  with  unnecessary  appro- 
priations and  stands  in  the  way  of  needed  public 
improvements,  provokes  discontent,  none  the  less 
a  serious  menace  because  the  true  obstacle  to  prog- 
ress is  so  little  understood.  And  if  we  are  to  have 
contented  communities  and  be  free  from  disorder, 
we  must  stop  extravagance  and  careless  expendi- 
ture and  have  the  public  business  properly  trans- 
acted. Thrift  in  communities  is  just  as  essential 
to  happiness  as  thrift  in  the  home.  A  community 
well  governed  in  the  sense  that  reasonable  amounts 
derived  by  taxation  are  faithfully  and  intelligently 
expended  will  almost  inevitably  be  a  community 
of  order  and  peace. 

Efficient  administration  is  also  necessary  to  reveal 
defects  in  government,  and  to  point  the  proper 
direction  of  remedial  efforts.  We  cannot  tell  what 
is  needed  until  what  we  have  has  been  well  tried. 
We  are  frequently  in  a  state  of  confusion  as  to 
results  because  the  experiments  in  the  public  labo- 
ratory are  so  carelessly  conducted.     The  best  plans 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  41 

of  progress  will  be  shattered  if  administration  is 
faulty.  And  it  is  hardly  worth  while  to  consider 
improvements  unless  at  the  same  time  we  insist 
upon  having  public  work  attended  to  with  absolute 
fidelity  and  with  the  highest  degree  of  ability  that 
we  can  command. 

When  we  consider  the  obstacles  to  efficiency  in 
administration  we  find  that  the  fundamental  diffi- 
culty is  the  lax  view  that  is  taken  of  public  obliga- 
tion. The  people  are  willing  to  tolerate  in  public 
employment  what  they  will  not  tolerate  in  their 
own  enterprises.  If  a  man  is  rated  as  a  good  fellow, 
if  he  cannot  be  proved  guilty  of  stealing,  if  he  is  a 
good  father  and  a  kindly  neighbour,  then  there  are 
many  who  consider  it  a  great  injustice  that  he 
should  be  adjudged  guilty  of  gross  waste  and  inex- 
cusable inefficiency  in  the  public  work  committed 
to  him.  When  upon  these  grounds  he  becomes  the 
subject  of  criticism,  his  friends  —  excellent  persons 
— will  assure  you  that  he  has  not  grown  rich  at  public 
expense,  as  though  that  were  an  answer.  Very 
likely  his  pastor  will  most  sincerely  plead  for  him 
because  his  private  life  is  believed  to  be  without 
reproach.  It  seems  to  be  so  difficult  for  many  to 
realize  that  no  one  is  entitled  to  be  paid  from  the 
public  treasury  simply  for  being  sober  and  honest, 


42  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

and  that  while  honesty  and  sobriety  are  essential, 
the  public  officer  is  paid  for  work  and  the  people 
are  entitled  to  have  it  well  and  economically  done. 
Fortunately  the  idea  is  gaining  ground,  and  with 
higher  standards  we  may  hope  to  reach  the  point 
where  we  can  assume  that  officers  will  not  steal  or 
use  their  positions  for  the  sake  of  personal  gain, 
and  we  can  centre  our  attention  upon  the  quali- 
fications which  ensure  thoroughness  and  expertness. 

Apart  from  the  indulgence  with  which  adminis- 
tration has  been  viewed,  there  are  several  hindrances 
to  efficiency  which  demand  special  consideration  on 
the  part  of  the  citizen  if  he  is  intelligently  to  exer- 
cise his  influence. 

One  is  the  inadequacy  of  laws.  I  have  already 
referred  to  the  obvious  fact  that  legislation  is  not 
a  substitute  for  administration,  and  that  it  is  a 
frequent  mistake  to  suppose  that  law  is  needed 
instead  of  the  enforcement  of  law.  Still,  imperfect 
legislation  frequently  prevents  the  securing  of  bene- 
fits to  which  the  people  are  entitled  and  which  they 
have  endeavoured  to  secure.  When  proposals  are 
made  for  amendment  of  the  law  the  familiar  objec- 
tion is  that  we  have  too  much  law.  Certainly  the 
activity  of  our  legislators  has  appalling  results 
when  we  consider  the  number  of  statutes  which 


IN  DEMOCRATIC   GOVERNMENT  43 

each  legislative  session  produces,  and  the  extent 
of  unnecessary  legislation  is  deplorable.  But  the 
thoughtful  citizen  will  not  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  sug- 
gestions for  improvement  because  he  is  told  that  there 
is  too  much  law.  He  will  understand  that  the 
real  trouble  is  that  there  is  too  much  ill-considered 
legislation.  He  will  also  appreciate  the  fact  that 
careless  law-making  makes  corrective  legislation 
necessary.  In  addition,  the  impossibility  of  fore- 
seeing all  the  cases  that  may  arise  in  varied  expe- 
rience, makes  it  necessary  to  amend  the  law  to 
meet  the  unexpected  situation.  Instead  of  impa- 
tiently disposing  of  all  suggestions  upon  the  ground 
that  there  is  "too  much  law,"  he  will  be  anxious 
to  consider  where  the  difficulty  resides  in  the  par- 
ticular case,  how  it  should  be  met,  and  the  merits 
of  the  proposal  made.  Then  he  will  be  able  delib- 
erately to  judge  whether  legislation  is  needed,  and 
if  so  he  will  approve  it.  There  is  just  as  much 
folly  in  conservative  epigram  as  in  radical  watch- 
words. In  every  case  we  must  endeavour  to  find 
where  the  truth  lies  and  to  decide  wisely  accord- 
ing to  the  facts.  While  insisting,  therefore,  upon 
proper  administration  of  existing  laws,  we  should 
constantly  be  keen  to  ascertain  what  embarrass- 
ments are  occasioned  by  imperfect  laws. 


44  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

There  has  also  been  a  tendency  to  cripple  admin- 
istrative officers  by  laws  that  are  too  minute.  One 
of  the  chief  causes  for  prolific  legislation  is  the 
constant  necessity  for  adjusting  laws  to  the  expand- 
ing need  of  municipalities  that  are  living  under 
special  acts.  Usually  we  meet  the  situation  by 
altering  a  link  in  the  chain,  or  by  changing  a  clasp, 
which  must  be  changed  again  in  another  year 
because  of  some  other  exigency.  In  the  desire  to 
maintain  liberty  and  to  protect  themselves  from 
the  abuse  of  administrative  discretion,  legislatures 
bind  communities  and  officers  with  unnecessary 
bonds.  This  is  true  also  with  respect  to  constitu- 
tional limitations  upon  legislative  power.  Instead 
of  providing  a  general  charter  of  powers  and  broad 
limitations  securing  the  essentials  of  republican 
government,  the  tendency  is  noticeable  to  multiply 
detailed  restrictions  so  that  our  constitutions  ex- 
pand significantly  with  each  convention. 

Now  it  is  true  that  in  the  unchecked  discretion 
of  legislatures  and  administrative  officers  lie  the 
opportunities  of  tyranny.  But  on  the  other  hand 
there  is  no  greater  mistake  than  to  withhold  the 
power  to  do  well  in  the  fear  of  ill.  There  is  no 
adequate  power  that  cannot  be  abused.  But  we 
must  endeavour  to   find   a   remedy  against   abuse 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  45 

short  of  making  official  and  administrative  power 
inadequate.  Communities  should  not  be  hampered 
with  respect  to  matters  that  exclusively  concern 
them.  Instead  of  filling  charters  with  minute 
restrictions  as  to  local  administration,  there  should 
be  left  to  local  authorities  suitable  opportunity  to 
administer  local  affairs.  This  stimulates  the  public 
spirit  of  the  locality  and  quickens  the  sense  of 
public  duty  which  is  the  mainspring  of  good  govern- 
ment. 

It  probably  is  the  opinion  of  the  average  citizen 
that  the  greatest  obstacle  to  administrative  effi- 
ciency is  official  corruption.  There  is  undoubtedly 
sufficient  reason  why  the  vigilance  of  the  people 
should  be  heightened  and  not  relaxed.  The  pur- 
chase of  public  officers,  the  sale  of  indulgences  to 
law-breakers  to  enhance  the  fortunes  of  those  who 
control  appointments  to  office,  systematic  levies 
for  official  favours,  —  these  are  crimes  of  the  first 
magnitude,  with  respect  to  which  every  citizen 
should  be  swift  to  turn  informer  and  every  effort 
should  be  made  to  punish  the  guilty.  But  I  believe 
that  the  grosser  forms  of  corruption  are  happily 
more  rare.  There  is  less  direct  bribery  and  stealing. 
Corrupting  influences  have  become  more  insidious, 
and  for  this  reason  are  perhaps  more  dangerous. 


46  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

They  are  rarely  susceptible  of  proof;  they  leave 
few  traces  and  largely  defy  investigation.  These 
are  the  influences  which  are  shown  in  the  play  of 
favouritism,  in  the  payment  of  private  obligations 
through  official  discretion,  in  permitting  informa- 
tion to  be  given  in  advance  of  official  action  to 
those  who  may  profit  by  the  knowledge,  in  making 
administrative  offices  centres  of  solicitations  which 
imply  official  promises.  Larceny  and  embezzle- 
ment have  largely  given  place  to  conspiracies  and 
shrewd  agreements  for  mutual  protection  and  en- 
richment. Akin  to  these  evils  is  the  blighting 
influence  of  efforts  to  support  partisan  workers  at 
the  public  expense,  to  which  I  shall  refer  later  in 
connection  with  the  matter  of  party  organization. 
This  practice  not  only  affords  the  means  through 
which  administrative  action  is  perverted  in  order 
to  hold  and  to  pay  for  political  support,  but  it  also 
forms  the  avenue  for  the  introduction  of  incom- 
petents into  the  public  service  and  leads  to  the 
multiplication  of  unnecessary  places.  Partisan  in- 
cumbrances to  a  great  extent  account  for  administra- 
tive palsy. 

There  is  also  the  disposition  to  regard  public 
employment  as  a  refuge  for  those  who  cannot 
otherwise  support  themselves.     Now  public  service 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  47 

is  not  an  almshouse,  although  the  management  of 
almshouses  is  an  important  branch  of  administra- 
tion. It  is  no  recommendation  to  an  applicant  for 
a  place  on  the  public  payroll  that  he  can  get  no 
other  employment.  Appointing  officers  do  not 
receive  their  power  to  disburse  the  public  moneys 
in  order  that  they  may  dispense  them  in  charity 
outside  of  institutions  duly  provided.  The  needy 
and  the  unfortunate  should  be  cared  for  otherwise. 
This  of  course  should  not  be  taken  to  mean  that 
men  do  not  sometimes  become  available  for  public 
service  through  personal  hardships  and  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  fortune.  But  the  appointment  must  rest 
upon  the  ground  of  fitness,  and  need  of  the  money 
is  not  a  sufficient  reason  for  selection. 

The  mere  statement  of  some  of  these  causes  of 
defects  in  administration  has  involved  suggestions 
as  to  the  remedies  that  may  be  applied.  But  there 
are  certain  means  of  improving  conditions  which  I 
desire  to  emphasize. 

Every  effort  should  be  made  to  dignify  public 
office.  Instead  of  carping  at  the  employee  of  the 
State  as  one  who  feeds  at  the  public  crib,  there 
should  be  a  keener  realization  of  the  necessity  and 
importance  of  the  work  that  is  to  be  done  and  of 
the  credit  that  attaches  to  the  proper  doing  of  it. 


48  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

It  has  been  thought  that  public  office  might  be  digni- 
fied by  increasing  its  emoluments.  Certainly  many 
public  officers  are  underpaid  and  work  of  an  extent 
and  quality  is  expected  of  them  which  private 
enterprise  would  not  think  of  attempting  to  com- 
mand upon  like  terms.  The  scale  of  compensation 
in  many  cases  frequently  reflects  the  standards  of 
earlier  days  when  the  cost  of  living  was  less  and 
the  opportunities  of  receiving  greater  rewards  were 
not  so  many.  The  public  can  afford  to  pay  its 
servants  decently,  and,  in  the  main,  must  do  so 
if  it  is  to  maintain  proper  standards  of  public 
work. 

In  the  great  majority  of  places  in  the  public 
service,  particularly  in  those  concerned  with  rou- 
tine or  technical  work,  the  employment  should  be 
permanent.  There  is  little  chance  of  promotion, 
and  the  ordinary  opportunities  afforded  in  private 
business  are  largely  lacking.  This  is  a  reason  why 
employees  of  this  description  should  be  paid  accord- 
ing to  a  scale  certainly  not  below  that  governing 
payments  for  private  work  of  the  same  sort.  The 
efficiency  of  a  force  in  a  great  department  cannot 
be  secured  if  men  are  recruited  for  it  who  are  not 
qualified  for,  and  hence  cannot  obtain,  similar  work 
elsewhere,  who  rankle  under  injustice  and  to  whom 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  49 

the  head  of  the  department  must  apply  his  spur 
in  vain.  Good  treatment  and  reasonable  compen- 
sation are  essential  to  good  results. 

But  when  we  come  to  the  higher  offices  I  am 
not  one  of  those  who  think  that  mere  increases 
of  salary  will  prove  an  adequate  solution  of  the 
problem.  I  also  share  the  feeling  that  we  should 
be  cautious  about  increasing  the  chance  of  drawing 
men  to  the  public  service  who  seek  it  for  the  sake 
of  the  compensation.  It  is  idle  to  suppose  that 
emoluments  can  be  given  which  can  rival  those 
obtainable  by  men  of  first  rate  ability  in  their 
lines  of  chosen  effort.  Attorneys-general  cannot 
be  paid  what  is  received  by  leaders  of  the  bar; 
heads  of  banking  and  insurance  departments  can- 
not expect  the  compensation  paid  to  the  presidents 
of  banks  and  insurance  companies;  judges  must 
be  content  to  serve  for  annual  pay  less  in  amount 
than  may  be  received  in  a  single  case  by  the  law- 
yers arguing  before  them.  Men  of  eminent  ability 
must  be  found  to  conduct  the  delicate  work  of  super- 
vising our  great  public  service  companies  for  rewards 
which  are  slight  in  comparison  with  those  of  the 
managers  and  officers  of  such  corporations. 

The  difficulty  is  not  insurmountable.  The  public 
should  pay  fair  compensation  and  should  not  demand 


50  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

unreasonable  sacrifices  from  those  who  serve  it,  but 
to  attract  good  men  and  to  secure  efficiency,  the 
honour  and  independence  of  the  office  are  of  far 
greater  account  than  the  emoluments  that  attach 
to  it.  If  it  be  understood  that  the  administrative 
head  has  proper  freedom,  that  he  will  not  be  con- 
trolled by  political  organizations,  that  he  will  not 
be  required  to  parcel  out  places  that  he  is  free  to 
fill  in  order  to  satisfy  the  henchmen  of  political 
leaders,  that  he  can  organize  his  department  on 
the  basis  of  efficiency  and  receive  credit  from  a 
public  that  is  anxious  to  do  honour  to  a  public  officer 
of  conspicuous  merit,  there  will  be  much  less  diffi- 
culty in  attracting  men  of  distinguished  ability,  as 
well  as  of  the  highest  character,  to  the  service  of 
the  State.  While  we  recognize  the  fact  that  very 
large  rewards  are  won  in  business  enterprise  and 
in  professional  employment  by  the  exceptional  few, 
we  also  know  that  there  are  many  of  first-class 
ability  who,  for  reasons  not  to  their  disparagement, 
do  not  receive  them.  There  are  also  public-spirited 
men  of  independent  means,  who  are  anxious  to 
serve  the  State  if  the  service  can  be  rendered  under 
honourable  conditions.  I  know  the  difficulty  of  find- 
ing men  who  are  available,  who  possess  the  requisite 
ability  without  being  embarrassed  by  such  relations 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  51 

as  impair  the  public  confidence  in  the  single-minded- 
ness  of  their  work,  and  who  at  the  same  time  are 
willing  to  assume  heavy  official  burdens.  And  I 
believe  that  the  most  important  contribution  that 
can  be  made  to  administrative  efficiency  is  to  pro- 
mote the  independence  of  officers  and  to  attach  to 
the  office  the  degree  of  honour,  which  is  commen- 
surate with  the  importance  of  the  work  to  be  per- 
formed. The  placing  of  inferior  men  in  public 
office  not  only  causes  immediate  loss,  but  cheapens 
the  office  itself;  and  every  efficient  officer  who  meets 
the  requirements  of  his  place  not  only  accom- 
plishes much  in  his  immediate  service,  but  power- 
fully aids  in  elevating  his  office  to  its  true  rank 
in  the  public  estimate. 

In  considering  this  question,  the  obligation  of 
fairness  in  the  criticism  of  public  officials  becomes 
manifest.  Criticism  is  the  safeguard  of  the  public; 
no  intelligent  officer  would  dispense  with  it  if  he 
could.  It  is  the  life  current  of  democracy.  But 
everyone  who  wields  the  critical  pen  or  indulges 
in  critical  utterances  should  keenly  feel  his  responsi- 
bility. We  have  a  government  of  laws  and  not  of 
men,  but  a  government  after  all  is  nothing  but 
men.  To  create  a  disinclination  for  public  life,  to 
make  men  feel  that  its  conditions  with  regard  to 


52  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

self-respect  and  decent  reputation  are  intolerable, 
to  drive  men  of  sensibility  away  from  its  oppor- 
tunities in  sheer  disgust,  and  to  leave  public  employ- 
ment the  more  accessible  to  adventurers,  to  soldiers 
of  fortune,  and  to  political  hangers-on,  is  to  fetter 
progress  and  to  put  a  premium  upon  inefficiency. 

I  do  not  defend  the  supersensitive.  A  public 
officer  should  not  wear  his  heart  upon  his  sleeve, 
and  should  not  take  too  seriously  the  flings  of  his 
opponents.  If  he  is  right  he  can  afford  to  ignore 
them,  and  if  he  is  wrong,  he  has  little  reason  to 
complain.  But  when  we  have  in  mind  the  attract- 
ing of  men  to  the  public  service  and  the  securing 
of  the  proper  conduct  of  public  business,  we  cannot 
fail  to  recognize  the  great  importance  of  candour 
and  fairness  in  public  comment.  Giving  credit 
where  credit  is  due,  establishing  public  office  in 
honourable  estimation  is  to  a  large  degree  to  assure 
fidelity  and  to  minimize  the  temptations  of  the 
public  officer  to  seek  other  rewards. 

Some  of  you  probably  will  go  into  journalism 
and  you  will  justly  rejoice  in  the  opportunities  it 
affords.  You  will  recognize  the  great  advantage 
of  the  impersonal  character  of  most  of  its  work, 
and  I  hope  you  will  also  realize  the  obligations  of 
decency  and  honour,  and  that  you  will  no  more 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  53 

circulate  an  untruthful  statement  or  a  reckless 
statement  with  regard  to  a  public  officer  than  you 
would  be  guilty  of  treachery  to  the  flag  in  time  of 
war.  A  man  who  seeks  profit  in  the  sale  of  calum- 
nies is  the  most  despicable  of  human  creatures. 
On  the  other  hand,  accurate  accounts  of  public 
affairs  with  just  praise  or  blame,  or  at  least  with  a 
sincere  desire  to  be  just  in  praise  or  blame,  the 
careful  pointing  out  of  what  has  been  done  and 
what  should  be  done,  the  effort  to  understand  the 
situation  and  to  depict  it  truthfully,  to  give  fidelity 
its  due  reward  of  public  credit  and  faithlessness 
the  severe  censure  it  deserves,  —  this  is  work  of  a 
high  order.  Every  citizen  has  it  in  his  power  to 
contribute  to  the  maintenance  of  proper  standards 
of  criticism,  and  to  swell  the  rebuke  of  those  who 
abuse  their  privileges. 

I  have  often  been  asked  whether  a  young  man 
should  seek  a  public  career  and  should  make  public 
office  an  object  of  ambition.  Readiness  to  take 
office  on  the  part  of  those  who  are  qualified  for  it 
and  are  so  circumstanced  that  they  can  take  it, 
is  one  of  the  requisites  of  increased  efficiency. 
There  is  no  higher  ambition  than  to  be  of  public 
service;  and  to  hold  public  office  in  order  to  be  of 
service  is  an  aim  to  be  honourably  cherished.    The 


54  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

first  consideration  is  that  no  one  should  take  office, 
or  pursue  it,  where  his  taking  or  pursuit  will  involve 
any  obligations  detrimental  to  the  faithful  execu- 
tion of  his  duties.  If  one  has  the  ambition  to 
follow  a  public  career  he  should  distinctly  perceive 
that  it  must  not  be  allowed  to  dominate  self-respect 
or  to  supplant  the  ideals  of  citizenship.  Every 
young  man  should  aim  at  independence  and  should 
prepare  himself  for  a  vocation;  above  all,  he  should 
so  manage  his  life  that  the  steps  of  his  progress 
are  taken  without  improper  aids,  that  he  calls  no 
one  master,  that  he  does  not  win  or  deserve  the 
reputation  of  being  a  tool  of  others,  and  that  if 
called  to  public  office  he  may  assume  its  duties 
with  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  that  he  is  free 
to  rise  to  the  full  height  of  his  opportunity.  If 
he  can  seek  office  without  solicitations  and  prom- 
ises, expressed  or  implied,  which  will  interfere  with 
the  doing  of  his  full  duty,  then  he  may  seek  with 
zest,  and  possibly  he  may  find  delight  in  the  seeking. 
But  I  should  rather  say:  Work  in  your  chosen 
field  to  the  best  of  your  ability,  enter  into  political 
activities  without  thought  or  demand  of  reward, 
do  your  duty  as  a  citizen  because  it  is  your  duty 
and  not  because  you  expect  office,  keep  yourself 
free   from   embarrassing   obligations,   be   ready   to 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  55 

take  office  if  it  comes  your  way  and  you  can  take 
it;  but  never  let  the  thought  of  your  selection  stay 
your  efforts  in  aiding  the  community  to  better 
things. 

The  chief  safeguard  against  inefficiency  is  account- 
ability to  the  people.  It  is  the  fact  of  such  account- 
ability, under  a  proper  system,  which  makes  it 
possible  to  give  adequate  power  to  public  officers. 
It  is  gratifying  that  there  are  so  many  evidences 
of  a  greater  interest  in  administration  and  of  in- 
creased determination  to  hold  officers  responsible 
for  good  work.  The  fact  of  accountability  exists, 
but  constant  emphasis  is  needed  as  to  what  the 
people  have  a  right  to  demand  and  for  what  they 
should  hold  their  officers  to  account. 

One  fundamental  difficulty  in  enforcing  this 
accountability  is  found  in  the  number  of  offices 
which  are  filled  by  election.  As  it  has  been  thought 
necessary  to  protect  the  community  against  despot- 
ism by  minute  restrictions  upon  official  authority, 
and  by  charters  prolix  with  prohibitions,  so  it  has 
also  been  thought  necessary  to  multiply  elective 
offices.  In  this  the  people  have  overshot  the  mark 
and  defeated  their  own  purpose.  Accountability 
exists  only  in  form  if  the  attention  of  the  people 
cannot  be  concentrated  and  their  action  pointed 


56  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

to  the  desired  result.  The  distribution  of  official 
powers  among  a  number  of  co-ordinate  adminis- 
trative officers,  each  elective,  has  the  result  that 
there  is  confusion  as  to  the  incidence  of  responsi- 
bility and  frequently  in  popular  understanding  it 
is  unjustly  placed.  In  many  of  our  States  officers 
corresponding  in  their  functions  to  members  of  the 
federal  cabinet  are  elected  by  the  people.  Still, 
the  governor  as  the  executive  head  of  the  state 
is  popularly  regarded  as  charged  with  executive 
administration.  It  may  be,  however,  that  he  has 
no  real  authority  over  the  auditing  department, 
as  that  may  be  in  the  hands  of  an  elected  comp- 
troller. He  may  have  no  authority  over  the  legal 
department,  as  that  may  be  in  the  hands  of 
an  elected  attorney-general.  Frequently  important 
public  works  are  carried  on  under  the  supervision 
of  elected  boards,  to  which  the  executive  head  of 
the  State  may  have  slight  relation  or  none  at  all. 
Thus  executive  responsibility  is  divided,  and  at 
the  state  elections  a  number  of  officers  are  chosen 
who  in  their  separate  spheres  are  quite  as  impor- 
tant as  the  chief  executive  in  his  sphere,  while  it 
is  usually  found  that  the  attention  of  the  people 
is  concentrated  upon  the  election  of  the  latter,  and 
comparatively  slight  attention  is  paid  to  the  others. 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  57 

A  similar  difficulty  is  found  in  municipalities.  In 
many  of  our  cities  we  have  had  almost  a  hopeless 
division  of  responsibility,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to 
lay  defaults  at  any  door.  Such  a  system  does  not 
safeguard  proper  accountability  and  proceeds  upon 
a  mistaken  theory. 

The  mistake  is  to  suppose  that  the  only  method 
of  enforcing  accountability  is  to  make  an  office 
elective.  The  centre  of  responsibility,  of  course, 
must  be  found  in  an  elective  office.  But  when 
such  offices  are  made  very  numerous  the  result  is 
that  the  people  cling  so  tenaciously  to  a  particular 
form  that  they  lose  the  substance  of  their  rights. 
They  make  it  easy  for  cabals  and  machines  to 
accomplish  their  purposes.  These  thrive  on  a  mul- 
tiplicity of  elective  offices  which  give  them  oppor- 
tunities for  combinations  and  manipulations  which 
would  otherwise  be  impossible.  The  remedy  may 
be  sought  in  a  concentration  of  responsibility;  in 
few  offices  and  short  ballots.  The  people  will  give 
their  attention  to  the  filling  of  an  office  in  propor- 
tion to  their  conception  of  its  dignity,  of  the  impor- 
tance of  its  work,  of  the  extent  of  its  responsibilities. 
The  supposed  danger  from  executive  power  and  the 
range  of  executive  discretion  has  its  check  in  en- 
lightened sentiment  and  short  terms.     A  permanent 


58  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

service  recruited  on  the  basis  of  merit  and  fitness 
and  so  far  as  practicable  through  competitive  ex- 
amination; the  grouping  of  administrative  powers, 
with  the  necessary  divisions  or  departments,  under 
a  chief  administrative  head;  the  enforcement  of 
responsibility  of  the  administrative  head  through 
an  election  upon  which  the  attention  of  the  people 
can  be  centred  and  with  respect  to  the  importance 
of  which  they  are  fully  convinced,  —  in  these,  I 
believe,  will  be  found  important  securities  of  effi- 
cient administration. 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  59 


LECTURE  III 

POLITICAL  PARTIES 

"Popular  government,"  says  one  of  the  keenest 
students  of  political  institutions,1  "especially  as 
it  approaches  the  democratic  form,  will  tax  to  the 
utmost  all  the  political  sagacity  and  statesmanship 
of  the  world  to  keep  it  from  misfortune."  The  able 
and  sagacious  men  who  laid  the  foundations  of  our 
institutions  were  as  keenly  alive  to  the  dangers 
as  to  the  advantages  of  popular  rule,  and  they  de- 
voted their  utmost  effort  to  securing  the  expression 
of  the  will  of  the  people  through  means  which 
would  aid  the  supremacy  of  wisdom  and  of  virtue, 
and  would  guard  against  impatience  and  rash  im- 
pulse. They  chose  the  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment with  its  representative  feature,  and  confided 
administration  "to  a  small  number  of  citizens  elected 
by  the  rest."  In  this  they  not  only  sought  to  pro- 
vide a  plan  which  would  be  workable  over  a  vast 
extent  of  country,  with  a  large  population,  but  they 
were  particularly  anxious  to  furnish  security  against 
the  mischiefs  of  party  ambition  and  strife. 

1  Sir  Henry  S.  Maine  in  "  Popular  Government." 


60  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

Of  these  evils  they  were  deeply  sensible.  And 
among  the  most  important  advantages  of  "a  well 
constructed  Union"  they  emphasize  "its  tendency 
to  break  and  control  the  violence  of  faction."  As 
Madison  said:  "The  friend  of  popular  governments 
never  finds  himself  so  much  alarmed  for  their 
character  and  fate  as  when  he  contemplates  their 
propensity  to  this  dangerous  vice."  The  words 
of  Washington  in  his  farewell  address  express  a 
deep-seated  conviction.  The  spirit  of  party,  said 
he,  "unfortunately  is  inseparable  from  our  nature, 
having  its  root  in  the  strongest  passions  of  the  human 
mind.  It  exists  under  different  shapes  in  all  gov- 
ernments, more  or  less  stifled,  controlled  or  repressed; 
but,  in  those  of  the  popular  form,  it  is  seen  in  its 
greatest  rankness,  and  is  truly  their  worst  enemy. 
The  alternate  domination  of  one  faction  over  an- 
other, sharpened  by  the  spirit  of  revenge,  natural 
to  party  dissension,  which  in  different  ages  and 
countries  has  perpetrated  the  most  horrid  enor- 
mities, is  itself  a  frightful  despotism." 

It  was  the  hope  of  the  framers  of  the  Constitu- 
tion that  they  had  constructed  a  system  which 
would  be  unfavourable  to  party  control  and  through 
which  men  would  be  selected  to  discharge  the  func- 
tions   of    government    who   would    represent   the 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  61 

larger  interests  of  the  Nation,  unbiased  by  partisan 
animosities  or  by  narrow  considerations  of  party 
expediency.  They  expected  "to  refine  and  en- 
large the  public  views,  by  passing  them  through 
the  medium  of  a  chosen  body  of  citizens,  whose 
wisdom  may  best  discern  the  true  interest  of  their 
country,  and  whose  patriotism  and  love  of  justice 
will  be  least  likely  to  sacrifice  it  to  temporary  or 
partial  considerations."  x  They  believed  that  as 
the  sphere  of  government  was  extended  they  would 
enhance  the  protection  against  factious  combina- 
tions, and  that  in  a  large  republic  such  as  the  Union, 
they  would  find  security  by  reason  of  the  greater 
variety  of  parties  and  interests  and  of  the  diffi- 
culty of  obtaining  a  majority  of  the  same  party. 

But  unwittingly  they  constructed  a  system,  to 
the  successful  working  of  which  parties  were  essen- 
tial. That  part  of  the  system  which,  as  Hamilton 
said,  was  almost  the  only  part  which  escaped  with- 
out severe  censure  from  its  opponents,2  was  the 
method  of  selecting  the  President.  It  was  designed 
to  have  the  immediate  election  made  by  a  small 
number  of  men  selected  for  the  purpose  who  would 
be  "most  likely  to  possess  the  information  and  dis- 
cernment" necessary  for  such  a  task.     This  plan 

1  The  Federalist,  No.  10.  2The  Federalist,  No.  68. 


62  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

proved  futile.  The  selection  of  the  most  important 
officer  in  the  Nation  could  not  be  so  far  removed 
from  popular  choice.  In  the  course  of  events  it 
became  manifest  that  the  people  were  unwilling 
to  confide  to  a  body  of  electors  chosen  in  the  con- 
stitutional manner,  the  selection  of  a  Chief  Magis- 
trate, and  the  electoral  college  has  come  to  be 
simply  a  device  for  apportioning  the  popular  vote 
for  President  and  Vice-President  according  to 
States.  But  if  the  people  were  not  content  to 
turn  over  to  a  small  number  of  men  chosen  within 
the  respective  States,  the  selection  of  a  President, 
it  was  absolutely  necessary  that  they  should  com- 
bine in  groups  to  express  their  wishes  with  respect 
to  candidates  and  policy.  Not  only  is  the  spirit 
of  party  "inseparable  from  our  nature,"  but  the 
function  of  party  has  been  found  to  be  inseparable 
from  our  actual  system  of  government.  As  Presi- 
dent Lowell  puts  it:  "The  framers  of  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  did  not  foresee  the  role 
that  party  was  to  play  in  popular  government,  and 
they  made  no  provision  for  it  in  their  plan;  yet 
they  established  a  system  to  which  parties  were  a 
necessity.  ...  If  the  electoral  college  was  not 
really  to  select  the  President,  it  must  become  a 
mere  machine  for  registering  the  results  of  a  popu- 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  63 

lar  vote  throughout  the  nation,  and  the  candidates 
for  the  presidency  must  be  designated  beforehand 
in  some  way."  l 

The  fact  of  main  significance,  however,  is  not 
that  we  have  parties,  not  that  they  must  be  regarded 
as  essential  to  the  working  of  our  government 
instead  of  being  considered  as  evils,  but  that  the 
tendency  has  been  so  marked  to  the  establishment 
and  continuance  of  two  great  parties  which  for 
the  most  part  dominate  the  field  of  partisan  activ- 
ity. It  was  natural  to  suppose  that  the  large 
variety  of  interests  would  be  represented  in  numer- 
ous and  changing  groups  or  parties,  and  that  no 
great  party  could  maintain  the  solidarity  requisite 
for  long-continued  effectiveness.  Not  only  was 
the  party  coherence  to  which  we  are  accustomed 
contrary  to  the  expectations  of  the  founders,  but 
it  has  been  a  surprise  to  the  modern  critics  of  our 
institutions. 

A  great  party  must  have  its  birth  and  grow  its 
strength  through  political  conviction.  Where  there 
is  serious  division  among  the  people  with  respect 
to  some  fundamental  question  of  national  policy, 
or  as  to  various  related  matters  deemed  to  be  of 
first  importance,  two  great  parties  will  reflect  the 

1  In  "  The  Government  of  England." 


64  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

opposing  views.  The  marvel  is  that  when  condi- 
ditions  change  and  major  issues  have  been  deter- 
mined or  cease  to  impress  the  popular  imagination, 
when  new  conditions  arise  and  unforeseen  questions 
relating  to  new  interests  are  presented,  the  former 
party  divisions  should  continue  to  so  great  a  degree 
unaltered. 

The  conflicting  views  with  respect  to  the  proper 
scope  of  national  power,  and  the  relation  of  the 
Nation  to  the  States,  which  antedated  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution,  naturally  furnished  a  line  of 
division  in  the  subsequent  struggle  between  the 
Federalists  and  the  Anti-Federalists.  When  the 
Republican  party  of  Jefferson  achieved  supremacy, 
and  the  party  of  the  Federalists  bereft  of  leader- 
ship disappeared,  there  was  for  a  time  an  absence 
of  parties,  properly  speaking,  and  their  place  was 
taken  by  the  rivalries  of  leaders  and  their  personal 
followers.  Great  parties  again  developed  in  the 
Whigs  and  Democrats,  which  contested  the  field 
until  the  slavery  issue  forced  a  new  alignment 
and  the  Republican  party  came  into  existence. 
Since,  then,  for  upwards  of  fifty  years,  the  two 
parties,  Republican  and  Democratic,  have  main- 
tained themselves  as  the  great  parties  of  the  coun- 
try, so  far  distancing  all  rivals  in  the  extent  of  their 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  65 

popular  support  as  to  make  other  parties  relatively 
insignificant. 

This  has  been  accomplished  notwithstanding 
changes  of  extraordinary  importance  in  our  inter- 
national position  and  in  our  internal  conditions, 
and  despite  the  rise  of  many  new  issues  unforeseen 
fifty  years  ago.  It  exists  despite  the  fact  that  in 
both  the  great  parties  there  are  views  extremely 
divergent,  and  in  one  it  may  be  said  that  there 
are  antagonistic  groups,  each  of  which  is  further 
removed  from  the  other  in  political  theory  than  it 
is  from  the  position  of  the  great  opposing  party. 
Upon  most  of  the  great  questions  of  the  day, 
whether  we  have  regard  to  the  tariff,  or  to  our  finan- 
cial system,  or  to  the  future  of  our  insular  posses- 
sions, or  to  foreign  policy,  or  to  the  extension  of 
the  army  and  navy,  or  to  the  regulation  of  railroads 
and  other  public  service  corporations,  or  to  the  sup- 
pression of  monopolistic  combinations,  it  may  fairly 
be  supposed  that  were  opinion  freely  expressed, 
the  line  of  division  would  run  across  the  great 
parties  and  not  between  them.  The  continued 
effectiveness  of  the  great  parties  marks  the  recog- 
nition of  the  undesirability  of  the  breaking  up  of 
party  activities  into  those  of  small  and  ineffective 
groups,  and  a  practical  tendency  to  exercise  the 


66  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

party  function  essential  to  the  working  of  our 
government  in  a  manner  consistent  with  the  con- 
centration of  controversy  and  the  achievement 
substantially  of  majority  rule. 

While  this  demands  suitable  appreciation,  it 
should  not  be  over-emphasized.  The  absence  of 
the  unifying  force  of  a  paramount  issue  with  re- 
spect to  which  the  members  of  a  great  party  are 
in  accord,  always  threatens  disintegration.  There 
is  danger  in  such  case  that  in  the  course  of  events 
irreconcilable  differences  of  opinion  will  achieve 
such  importance  that  they  will  lead  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  party  unity  and  to  the  emergence  of  new 
groups  or  parties  with  their  own  candidates  and 
policy.  The  counteracting  influences,  however, 
are  very  strong.  There  are  the  exigencies  of  oppo- 
sition which  require  combination.  There  is  an 
inherent  disposition  to  oppose  and  to  rally  the  forces 
of  opposition  under  one  banner  upon  the  best 
available  standing  ground.  Habit,  tradition,  and 
the  sentiment  of  loyalty  make  their  strong  demands. 
There  are,  and  probably  always  will  be,  small 
parties  which  are  in  effect  parties  of  protest,  con- 
tent to  adhere  tenaciously  to  some  principle  without 
hope  of  temporary  success,  but  with  confidence 
in  the  unknown  future.     It  is  enormously  difficult, 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  67 

however,  to  organize  a  great  party.  It  must 
elicit  a  strong  and  widely  diffused  support  and  its 
birth  must  spring  from  a  common  conviction  and 
from  a  general  belief  in  its  necessity.  These  condi- 
tions favour  the  subordination  even  of  serious  dif- 
ferences, and  the  maintenance  of  a  fair  degree  of 
party  solidarity.  Disintegration  might  follow  a 
success  of  one  party  so  overwhelming  as  virtually 
to  destroy  all  opposition,  as  was  the  case  in  the  early 
part  of  the  last  century.  And  this  would  probably 
be  followed,  as  then,  by  factional  strife  within  the 
successful  party  and  the  formation  of  new  parties. 
Or  it  might  be  that,  as  in  the  case  of  slavery,  some 
great  issue  might  arise,  the  force  of  which  would 
destroy  existing  party  lines  and  create  new  ones. 
Not  improbably  such  an  issue  might  be  of  a  char- 
acter which  would  tend  to  unite  in  opposition  to 
each  other  the  members  of  existing  parties  who  are 
of  conservative  or  radical  tendencies  respectively. 
But  very  likely  we  should  still  continue  to  have 
two  great  parties,  even  if  names  were  different 
and  constituencies  were  changed. 

This  concentration  of  political  activity  in  two 
great  parties  has  its  obvious  disadvantages.  It 
would  seem  unfortunate  to  divide  the  people  of  a 
democracy   into  two   hostile  camps;  to  encourage 


68  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

habits  of  thought  which  engender  prejudice  and 
bitterness  on  the  part  of  one-half  of  our  citizens 
toward  the  other  half;  to  accustom  the  people  to 
regard  public  questions  largely  from  the  standpoint 
of  partisan  considerations  rather  than  upon  their 
individual  merits;  to  make  it  difficult  for  those 
who  belong  to  opposite  parties  to  forward  in  an 
effective  way  some  particular  measure  on  which 
they  are  agreed;  to  divide  the  support  of  public 
officers  who  seek  to  secure  the  impartial  adminis- 
tration of  the  public  business;  to  make  it  difficult 
to  present  an  issue  to  the  people  save  through  the 
devious  methods  of  party  politics  and  through  the 
utterances  of  party  platforms  whose  purposes  so 
frequently  are  to  conceal  and  to  evade,  in  the  inter- 
est of  party  expediency;  to  develop  opportunities 
for  chicanery  and  corruption,  and  to  foster  the 
designs  of  dishonourable  and  selfish  political  leaders 
who  trade  upon  party  loyalty. 

But  we  cannot  have  the  advantages  of  a  situa- 
tion without  its  disadvantages;  and  the  former  in 
this  case  greatly  outweigh  the  latter.  Division  of 
political  opinion  is  inevitable,  and  it  will  exist  with 
regard  to  all  public  questions  of  importance.  It 
is  essential  that  there  should  be  some  means  of 
focusing  controversy  and  of  providing  a  main  line 


IN   DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  69 

of  division.  If  instead  of  two  great  parties  we 
had  a  large  number  of  little  groups,  each  intent 
upon  its  own  shibboleth  and  pressing  its  own 
candidates  and  policies,  we  should  have  a  series 
of  triumphant  minorities,  little  or  nothing  would 
be  settled,  and  the  progress  and  prosperity  which 
depend  upon  stability  of  government  would  be 
impossible.  It  should  also  be  remembered  that 
novel  party  proposals  may  be  the  fruit  of  long- 
forgotten  seed,  and  that  party  action  under  changed 
conditions  may  simply  reveal  a  tendency  which 
earlier  conditions  with  their  dominant  issues  ob- 
scured. While  the  people  are  divided  mainly 
into  two  parties,  it  is  also  true  that  in  their  general 
intercourse  and  through  the  organs  of  public  opin- 
ion, particularly  when  there  is  no  dominant  issue, 
views  are  freely  promulgated  and  a  general  senti- 
ment is  created  which  does  not  recognize  the  limi- 
tations of  party  boundaries.  Such  sentiment  has 
its  weight  in  party  councils  and  much  is  accom- 
plished through  its  existence,  although  it  may  not 
present  an  issue  to  be  definitely  passed  upon  in  a 
political  campaign.  Through  the  instrumentali- 
ties of  great  parties  the  people  generally  do  express 
what  is  uppermost  in  their  minds.  If  there  is 
some  supreme  issue  actually  engaging  the  thoughts 


70  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

of  the  people,  in  some  way  it  will  emerge  and  prove 
a  decisive  factor.  The  issue  may  not  be  that  of 
the  party  platform;  it  may  be  more  fundamental 
than  that  proposed  by  any  particular  propaganda. 
It  may  indeed  merely  involve  a  general  attitude 
toward  public  questions  and  the  sense  of  national 
security  or  insecurity  under  proposed  leadership, 
or  the  desirability  of  continuity  or  change  in  admin- 
istration with  respect  to  its  effect  upon  the  prosper- 
ity of  the  country.  Such  judgments  are  really  a 
popular  synthesis  of  many  public  measures  and  pro- 
posals. The  widening  scope  of  national  adminis- 
tration and  the  growing  importance  of  the  office 
of  Chief  Magistrate  which  represents  the  entire 
people  and  not  simply  a  State  or  district,  makes  it 
of  first  consequence  that  candidacies  should  be 
limited,  and  that  the  President  should  rest  his 
title  upon  a  suffrage  closely  corresponding  to  an 
actual  majority  of  the  electorate.  This  can  be 
accomplished  only  through  great  parties.  It  is 
not  consonant  with  human  nature  that  such  parties 
should  be  expected  suddenly  to  emerge  and  as 
quickly  to  disappear.  Their  tendency  to  continue 
reflects  the  conservatism  of  the  people  and  the 
practicality  in  the  conduct  of  government  which 
gives  assurance  of  permanence. 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  71 

Parties,  like  the  human  society  of  which  they 
form  a  part,  resemble  the  flowing  stream,  contin- 
ually changing,  yet  for  long  periods  presenting 
the  same  appearance.  The  first  voters  at  each 
presidential  election  are  sufficient  in  numbers  to 
alter  the  result  in  fairly  close  contests.  Large 
numbers  of  voters  hold  their  party  ties  very  loosely 
and  now  vote  with  one  party  and  now  with  another; 
and  others,  though  originally  they  may  have  been 
strongly  attached  to  one  party,  may  find  themselves 
for  some  time  out  of  sympathy  with  its  predomi- 
nant sentiment,  and  hence  gradually  transfer  their 
allegiance  to  the  other.  These  adjustments  are 
made  without  losing  the  advantage  of  maintaining 
two  great  parties  in  the  field. 

The  realization  of  the  desirability  of  having  two 
great  parties  to  focus  our  discussions  in  national 
affairs,  and  to  make  it  possible  to  secure  substan- 
tial majority  rule,  cannot  but  have  an  important 
effect  on  our  individual  party  relations.  I  do  not 
propose  to  discuss  the  history  of  the  great  parties, 
or  their  tenets  or  tendencies.  It  is  the  relation 
to  party  and  not  to  the  standards  or  the  future  of 
a  particular  party  to  which  I  desire  to  direct  your 
attention. 

In  my  judgment  participation  in  the  work  of 


72  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

one  of  the  great  parties  offers  an  opportunity 
for  service  to  the  community,  greater  than  that 
afforded  by  political  activity  outside  them.  In 
saying  this  I  do  not  underestimate  the  public 
benefit  derived  from  the  action  of  those  who  are 
members  of  small  parties  or  are  entirely  indepen- 
dent. Small  parties  by  directing  attention  to 
matters  of  principle,  sometimes  by  holding  the 
balance  of  power  in  particular  communities,  exert 
an  influence  upon  the  action  of  great  parties,  even 
though  they  may  not  achieve  directly  any  im- 
portant success.  They  provide  centres  for  the 
discussion  upon  their  merits  of  topics  of  public 
interest,  and  their  opportunites  to  bring  forward 
candidates  and  policies  and  thus  to  test  the  state 
of  public  sentiment  provide  the  community  with 
important  safety  valves. 

The  influence  exerted  by  men  who  are  inde- 
pendent of  party  and  vote  solely  with  the  purpose 
of  supporting  what  they  believe  to  be  the  best  at 
the  time,  is  of  great  value  to  the  community.  Un- 
influenced by  party  tradition  or  ambition,  they  are 
a  constant  warning  to  party  leaders  and  to  faithless 
officials,  and  a  stimulus  to  improved  party  methods. 
To  a  very  important  extent  they  furnish  a  natural 
corrective  for  unreasonable  partisanship,  and  with 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  73 

unrestrained  freedom  of  public  expression  they 
point  with  more  or  less  impartiality  to  party  fail- 
ures and  misdeeds,  to  the  blunders  or  vices  of 
leaders,  and  to  the  essentials  of  party  success. 
Unmoved  by  mere  considerations  of  party  expedi- 
ency, they  almost  unfailingly  support  administra- 
tive efforts  which  are  for  the  general  public  interest, 
and  they  provide  a  basis  for  appeal  over  the  heads 
of  short-sighted  party  managers.  Independence 
is  of  value  in  proportion  to  its  militancy.  This  is 
achieved  through  the  independent  press,  and  its 
endeavours  may  be  treated  as  representative;  for  it 
voices  the  sentiment  of  a  constituency  which  is  in 
sympathy  with  its  general  attitude  and  readily 
responds  to  its  expressed  opinions.  And  in  so  far 
as  this  constituency  is  earnest  and  measurably 
continuous  it  constitutes  in  effect  a  party  with  the 
principle  of  non-partisanship. 

The  regrettable  feature  of  this  non-relation  to 
the  great  parties  is  that  it  withdraws  from  their 
active  work  men  of  weight  and  character  who  would 
be  strongly  influential  in  the  determination  of 
party  action,  and  their  withdrawal  helps  to  create 
the  conditions  which  they  criticise.  Not  infre- 
quently individual  independence  is  a  cover  for 
disinclination  to  disagreeable  and  necessary  work 


74  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

and  shows  a  preference  to  stand  aloof  from  the 
contests  of  democracy  in  which  every  citizen  should 
take  a  vigorous  part.  This  cannot  be  commended 
from  any  point  of  view.  But  the  advantages 
flowing  from  the  influence  of  conscientious  inde- 
pendents, who  seek  nothing  for  themselves  and 
strive  earnestly  to  further  what  they  believe  to 
be  for  the  best  at  the  time  should  be  recognized  by 
every  citizen,  however  strong  his  belief  in  the  larger 
opportunity  for  service  which  affiliation  with  a  great 
party  affords. 

What  party  a  man  shall  join,  or  whether  he  shall 
join  any  party,  is  a  question  for  his  own  conscience, 
and  if  he  is  upright  and  honourable  in  his  conduct, 
and  seeks  justice  in  his  decisions,  he  will  be  of 
public  service.  But  the  paradox  is  that  the  influ- 
ence of  the  non-partisan  who  abhors  party,  must 
in  the  main  be  exercised  through  party.  With 
respect  to  the  choice  of  a  President  he  must,  if 
he  counts  at  all,  count  with  one  of  the  great  par- 
ties, and  for  the  candidate  of  one  or  the  other  his 
vote  must  in  effect  be  cast.  Whatever  his  influ- 
ence, it  is  likely  to  be  the  more  potent  because 
the  more  direct,  if  it  is  exercised  within  a  party, 
as  a  recognized  party  member.  However  strong 
may  be  the  sympathies  of  the  individual,  however 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  75 

intense  his  desire  for  capable  and  efficient  govern- 
ment and  for  progress  toward  the  attainment  of 
democratic  ideals,  he  must  realize  that  this  progress 
must  be  effected  through  the  instrumentalities  at 
our  command.  This  does  not  imply  that  anyone 
of  you  should  join  a  party  contrary  to  your  con- 
scientious convictions;  but  in  making  up  your  mind 
as  to  what  you  should  do,  you  should  have  a  proper 
understanding  of  the  means  through  which  your 
influence  as  a  citizen  must  be  exercised,  of  the  ac- 
tual conduct  of  our  affairs,  and  of  the  value  of  party 
relation.  Independence  has  thrived  on  the  stupid- 
ity, despotism,  and  corruption  of  party  managers. 
It  has  performed  notable  services  in  voicing  pro- 
test and  in  inflicting  punishment.  But  we  must 
still  remember  the  actual  necessities  of  the  success- 
ful working  of  our  system  of  government,  and 
endeavour  to  put  ourselves  in  such  relation  to  the 
extraconstitutional  machinery  of  the  government, 
as  to  exercise  to  the  fullest  extent  possible  the  privi- 
leges of  our  citizenship. 

Belief  in  party,  identification  with  one  of  the 
great  parties,  an  intense  desire  to  have  it  true  to 
its  best  traditions  and  to  enhance  its  public  use- 
fulness is  not  inconsistent  with  independence  of 
character.     Free    expression    of    sentiment    within 


76  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

the  party,  and  forceful  expression  of  conviction, 
whether  or  not  it  coincides  with  the  wishes  of  the 
party  managers,  is  essential  to  keep  the  party 
vigorous  and  wholesome.  The  spirit  of  faction, 
to  advance  personal  interests,  is  hostile  to  party 
soundness  and  success;  but  so  also  is  that  sort  of 
party  harmony  which  is  expressive  of  low  ideals 
and  the  sway  of  repressive  and  despotic  measures. 
The  sincere  party  man  will  be  as  anxious  to  promote 
discussion,  to  foster  the  intelligent  interest  which 
springs  from  freedom  of  participation  in  party 
affairs,  as  he  will  be  to  end  the  unseemly  clashes  of 
personal  ambitions.  Party  loyalty  and  patriot- 
ism should  coincide,  but  if  they  are  antagonistic, 
patriotism  must  ever  be  supreme.  Important  as 
it  may  be,  the  party  is  not  the  Nation  or  the 
State.  He  serves  his  party  best  who  loves  his 
country  most.  When,  therefore,  the  temporary 
attitude  of  party  threatens  the  interests  of  the 
community,  when  an  ill-chosen  policy  invites 
general  disaster,  when  party  success  means  the  de- 
basement of  the  standards  of  honour  and  decency, 
the  party  man  should  recognize  the  superior  obli- 
gation of  his  citizenship.  We  have  no  finer  illus- 
tration of  patriotic  devotion  than  has  been  afforded 
by  party  men  who  at  critical  periods  have  deserted 


IN  DEMOCRATIC   GOVERNMENT  77 

their  party  in  order  that  they  might  serve  the 
higher  interests  of  their  country  and  maintain 
the  principles  of  administration  which  were  essen- 
tial to  the  common  security.  At  times,  not 
simply  the  interests  of  the  people  at  large,  but 
of  the  party  itself,  may  justify  the  party  man  in 
acting  independently  of  it.  It  is  often  the  only 
available  means  of  rebuke  and  of  party  discipline 
through  which  opportunity  may  be  provided  for 
a  more  healthful  party  life.  The  earnest  party 
man  will  not  find  these  occasions  in  personal  dis- 
appointment or  in  slight  dissatisfactions,  nor  will 
he  be  actuated  by  the  spirit  of  revenge  or  lose 
sight  of  the  need  of  party  continuity  and  effective- 
ness. If  intelligent  and  patriotic,  he  will  endeavour 
to  maintain  a  proper  sense  of  proportion  and  to 
have  his  view  of  immediate  duty  conform  to  a 
true  perspective,  and  his  loyalty  will  be  first  to  his 
country  and  next  to  his  party's  permanent  inter- 
ests. 

I  have  thus  far  been  speaking  of  national  parties 
in  their  relation  to  national  affairs.  But  the  mem- 
bers of  a  national  party,  within  their  respective 
States,  are  citizens  of  the  States.  They  not  only 
vote  every  four  years  for  President,  but  every  two 
years  within  their  congressional  districts  they  vote 


78  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

for  representatives  in  Congress.  In  these  elec- 
tions the  issues  are  properly  national.  United 
States  senators  under  the  Constitution  are  elected 
by  state  legislatures,  and  where  this  function  is 
discharged  in  fact  and  not  merely  as  a  matter  of 
form  pursuant  to  a  popular  vote  for  senators,  the 
election  of  the  members  of  the  state  legislature  fre- 
quently has  direct  relation  to  national  affairs. 
Moreover,  the  election  of  the  administrative  officers 
of  the  State,  such  as  governor,  lieutenant-governor, 
and  attorney-general,  is  by  the  electorate  of  the 
entire  State,  and  especially  in  the  more  populous 
States  there  is  presented  an  exigency  similar  to 
that  which  we  find  in  the  Nation  at  large.  To 
limit  candidacies  and  to  focus  discussion,  party 
action  is  advisable,  and  state  issues  separately 
considered  have  not  been  so  sharply  defined  as 
generally  to  call  into  existence,  much  less  to  main- 
tain, great  state  parties  as  distinguished  from  those 
in  the  national  field.  In  these  conditions,  it  is 
inevitable  that  national  parties  should  take  part 
in  state  elections,  and  they  have  served  to  per- 
form the  party  function  with  respect  to  the  affairs 
of  the  States.  The  moral  influence  of  party  suc- 
cesses in  state  elections  cannot  be  overlooked,  for 
the  disposition  of  the  people  to  act  in  state  mat- 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  79 

ters  according  to  their  affiliations  with  national 
parties  is  deemed  to  give  to  the  result  of  their 
action  a  national  significance. 

The  actual  administration  of  state  affairs,  how- 
ever, rarely  has  any  close  connection  with  ques- 
tions of  national  concern.  A  state  governor  may 
perform  his  duties  for  years  without  being  called 
upon  to  deal  in  his  official  capacity  with  any  ques- 
tion that  may  fairly  be  called  national.  And  as 
the  people  become  interested  in  state  affairs,  and 
local  questions  achieve  prominence  in  their  minds, 
independence  tends  to  increase.  They  show  a 
growing  disposition  to  refuse  to  be  influenced  by 
the  appeals  of  the  national  party  to  which  they 
belong,  and  for  local  reasons  to  choose  to  state 
offices  men  of  opposite  national  faith.  The  elec- 
tion, three  times  in  succession,  of  Governor  John- 
son, a  Democrat,  in  a  state  strongly  Republican, 
is  an  illustration,  and  others  are  not  lacking  where 
the  support  of  state  governors  to  a  considerable 
extent  has  been  composed  of  men  of  all  parties 
whose  action  with  respect  to  state  issues  does  not 
imply  surrender  of  their  party  convictions  or  their 
national  party  relations.  It  cannot  be  doubted 
that  this  tendency  to  break  away  from  national 
parties  in  state  elections  is  deplored  by  the  leaders 


80  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

of  the  national  parties,  or  rather  by  those  of  the 
party  which  suffers  the  loss,  as  it  is  deemed  to  im- 
peril the  party  integrity.  These  fears  are  often 
exaggerated  as  the  voters  show  increasing  capacity 
to  discriminate  between  those  elections  in  which 
really  they  are  dealing  with  national  issues,  and 
those  in  which  they  are  not.  However,  the 
national  parties  are  in  the  field  and  it  is  not 
likely  that  permanent  parties  of  a  separate  charac- 
ter will  be  formed  to  discharge  the  party  function 
in  the  State.  More  probable  is  it  that  the  national 
parties  will  seek  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  state 
issues  by  presenting  candidates  selected  with  due 
regard  to  such  issues,  and  that  the  immediate 
demands  which  may  not  be  satisfied  in  this  way  will 
be  met  by  independent  voting  or  by  independent 
nominations. 

Divisions  according  to  national  party  lines  ex- 
tend beyond  the  state  elections  to  the  local  elec- 
tions in  counties  and  cities.  Here  we  are  removed 
from  considerations  which  are  germane  to  national 
controversies,  and  questions  are  presented  which 
require  an  examination  of  the  nature  and  tenden- 
cies of  party  organization. 

Every  party  to  be  effective  must  be  organized. 
Whether  loose  or  systematic  in  its  internal  arrange- 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  81 

ment,  it  must  in  some  way  provide  its  councils, 
its  representatives,  its  organs  of  expression.  Con- 
demnation of  party  organization,  as  such,  is  ab- 
surd. If  it  be  deemed  important  that  we  should 
have  great  national  parties,  in  order  to  concentrate 
political  discussions,  and  to  make  political  contro- 
versies suitably  serve  their  purpose  by  having 
decisions  made,  so  near  as  may  be,  by  a  majority 
of  a  vast  electorate,  it  is  likewise  important  that 
these  parties  be  properly  organized  and  man- 
aged. It  is  true  that  the  need  of  precise  and 
detailed  organization  is  in  inverse  ratio  to  the 
intensity  of  party  conviction.  When  national 
party  feeling  is  intense  with  regard  to  some 
great  issue,  campaigns  almost  manage  themselves. 
Every  voter,  alive  with  interest,  is  in  some  degree 
a  campaign  manager;  discussions  are  spontaneous; 
the  public  feeling  is  manifested  in  frequent  demon- 
strations; every  gathering  is  a  political  meeting. 
Great  as  may  be  the  value  even  in  such  cases  of 
orderly  management,  the  need  of  prearrangement 
is  slight  compared  with  that  in  listless  campaigns. 
The  vote  comes  without  coaxing. 

This  is  well  illustrated  in  the  description  which 
Carl  Schurz  gives  of  Lincoln's  first  campaign  for 
the    presidency.     He    says:    "The    campaign    was 


82  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

hardly  opened  when  the  whole  North  seemed  to 
get  into  commotion.  It  looked  as  if  people,  espe- 
cially in  the  smaller  cities  and  towns  and  the  coun- 
try districts,  had  little  else  to  do  than  to  attend 
meetings,  listen  to  speeches,  march  in  processions, 
and  carry  torches  after  nightfall.  'Wide- A  wake' 
companies  with  their  glazed  capes  and  caps,  the 
prototypes  of  the  modern  marching  clubs  of  party 
organizations,  sprang  up  all  over  the  land  as  by 
magic.  Brass  bands,  some  of  them  very  trying 
to  musical  ears,  seemed  to  grow  out  of  the  earth. 
And  all  this  was  done  without  any  official  machin- 
ery, for  the  postmasters  and  revenue  officers,  and 
district  attorneys  and  United  States  marshals 
with  their  retinues  were  on  the  Democratic  side. 
The  Republicans  held  only  a  few  State  and  muni- 
cipal offices,  hardly  worth  mentioning  as  political 
agencies.  Nor  was  there  much  money  used  in 
stirring  and  keeping  up  the  agitation.  The  funds 
at  the  disposal  of  the  Republican  National  Com- 
mittee were  beggarly  compared  with  the  immense 
sums  that  nowadays  flow  into  the  war  chests  of 
such  bodies.  The  State  and  local  committees 
were  generally  in  the  same  condition.  In  a  large 
measure  the  campaign  seemed  to  run  itself.  It  was 
not  necessary  to  drum  up  audiences  for  meetings 


IN  DEMOCRATIC   GOVERNMENT  83 

by  extraordinary  tricks  of  advertising  or  of  allur- 
ing attractions.  The  simplest  notice  sufficed  to 
draw  a  crowd.  Not  seldom  large  gatherings  were 
altogether  extemporized.' ' 

But  when  party  spirit  languishes,  when  many  are 
indifferent,  when  the  importance  of  the  nature  of 
the  issues  may  not  be  apprehended,  then  the  most 
careful  management  is  required  and  less  reliance 
can  be  placed  upon  the  spontaneity  of  the  party 
members.  It  is  also  natural  that  national  parties 
should  reflect,  as  they  do  reflect,  the  talent  for 
organization  of  the  American  people.  It  is  a 
common  saying  with  us  that  political  activities  do 
not  engage  men  of  the  highest  order  of  ability; 
that  citizens  of  conspicuous  attainments  are  not 
found  in  the  work  of  political  management.  It 
is  customary  to  decry  politicians  generally,  not 
simply  because  of  supposed  motive,  but  as  being 
men  of  inferior  talent.  While  it  is  doubtless  true 
that  many  men  of  distinguished  eminence  in  vari- 
ous lines  of  effort  abstain  from  participation  in 
political  affairs,  it  is  idle  to  ignore  the  fact  that  a 
large  part  of  the  ability  of  the  country  is  devoted 
to  political  activity.  In  national  affairs  and  in 
our  States  the  record  of  men  of  eminent  talent 
would    be    conspicuously    deficient    if    it    did    not 


84  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

include  the  names  of  those  who  had  largely  made 
political  effort  the  field  for  display  of  their  skill 
and  astuteness.  In  the  State  of  New  York,  for 
example,  a  large  number  of  the  greatest  names  of 
history  are  those  of  political  leaders  who  were 
none  the  less  politicians  because  now,  being  dead, 
they  are  styled  statesmen.  It  is  true  that  the 
growth  of  cities  and  of  the  relative  importance  of 
local  organizations,  and  the  conditions  in  which 
they  work,  has  tended  seriously  to  impair  the 
quality  and  ability  of  political  leadership.  But 
although  exercised  to  so  large  an  extent  on  a  low 
plane,  conspicuous  ability  in  organization  and  man- 
agement is  continually  manifested.  It  must  be 
recognized  that  the  development  of  political  ma- 
chinery during  recent  decades  is  a  striking  illus- 
tration of  the  tendency  to  thorough  organization 
with  respect  to  matters  in  which  a  deep  interest 
is  taken  and  which  provide  opportunities  for  the 
play  of  individual  talent. 

We  find  party  organization  to  be  essential,  and 
in  its  main  purpose  desirable.  If  to-day  the  purest- 
minded  men  in  the  country  were  to  combine  in  a 
political  party  to  further  the  noblest  cause,  they 
would  proceed  to  effect  the  best  organization  which 
they  could  devise,  with  leaders  of  tens  and  cap- 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  85 

tains  of  hundreds,  with  companies,  battalions, 
and  regiments,  whom  they  would  seek  to  inspire 
with  loyalty  to  the  common  purpose,  and  upon 
whose  efficient  and  united  work  they  would  rely 
for  its  accomplishment.  This  would  simply  be 
an  effort  at  effective  co-operation.  It  would  be 
favoured  by  our  modern  facilities  of  intercourse 
and  the  rapidity  of  communication.  It  would  be 
justified  by  its  motive,  and  many  who  had  been 
loudest  in  the  condemnation  of  "  machines  "  would 
be  conspicuous  within  its  ranks.  Sometimes  the 
extreme  of  personal  domination  is  found  in  organ- 
izations most  severe  in  denunciation  of  machine 
methods. 

I  shall  not  undertake  to  describe  the  form  of 
party  organization.  It  varies  with  respect  to 
certain  details  in  different  States  and  in  different 
communities  in  the  same  State.  But  the  differ- 
ences are  inconsequential.  The  essence  of  the 
matter  is  that  there  shall  be  party  representa- 
tives, committees,  and  executive  heads,  according 
to  appropriate  political  units,  and  that  these  shall 
work  in  harmony  as  a  part  of  a  general  scheme  of 
organization.  And  so  far  as  it  is  truly  represen- 
tative, so  far  as  through  it  the  wishes  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  party  find  genuine  expression  and  the 


86  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

organization  performs  its  proper  function  within 
its  legitimate  field,  there  is  no  ground  for  just 
criticism.  There  must  be  methods  by  which  party 
candidates  may  be  selected,  policies  announced 
campaigns  managed,  and  proper  efforts  directed 
to  the  bringing  out  of  the  full  party  strength  at 
the  polls. 

In  these  activities  it  is  important  that  the 
standards  of  true  political  leadership  should  be 
clearly  perceived  and  constantly  maintained.  Party 
leaders  in  the  higher  sense  must  be  distinguished 
from  those  party  managers  who  are  confined  to 
the  narrow  range  of  the  activities  of  small  districts, 
and  hence  seldom  get  a  wide  horizon  or  a  true  per- 
spective. But  management  on  a  large  scale,  with 
regard  to  the  exigencies  of  extended  communities, 
should  develop  political  leadership  of  a  high  order; 
and  whether  the  field  be  great  or  small,  party 
management  should  be  infused  with  the  spirit  and 
devoted  to  the  aims  of  such  leadership  within  its 
sphere. 

The  true  political  leader  must  be  a  man  of 
sympathy  and  quick  perception.  He  should  have 
political  insight  and  foresight.  He  must  be  swift 
to  detect  the  movement  of  public  opinion  and  the 
exigencies   of   conditions.     He   should    understand 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  87 

how  to  relate  the  prior  action  of  his  party  to  the 
next  appropriate  step  in  the  line  of  its  general 
policy  which  will  commend  the  party  to  public 
approval  and  justify  continued  confidence.  He 
should  not  wait  to  be  driven  by  public  indignation. 
In  the  forwarding  of  measures  or  the  shaping  of 
issues  he  should  never  forget  that  the  final  test 
will  be  the  public  interest,  and  that  while  he  may 
move  within  the  broad  limits  assigned  to  him  by 
the  traditions  of  his  party,  public  service  must  ever 
be  the  highest  party  expediency  and  that  public 
injury  is  an  ineffaceable  stain  upon  the  party  record. 
He  must  be  a  good  judge  of  men  so  that  those  whom 
he  favours  as  the  candidates  of  his  party  for  public 
place  shall  exhibit  integrity  and  eminent  qualifica- 
tions. Able  administration  is  a  party  asset  of 
high  value.  With  respect  to  the  management  of 
campaigns  he  must  have  not  only  executive  skill 
and  capacity  for  the  mastery  of  detail,  but  he  must 
also  be  able  to  inspire  zeal,  to  exact  fidelity,  and  to 
win  confidence  in  his  leadership.  He  must  have 
precise  information  as  to  conditions  within  his 
sphere  of  work  and  exhibit  the  industry  and  perti- 
nacity which  are  essential  to  success  in  every  effort. 
It  may  be  rare  that  any  one  man  should  display  all 
these   characteristics.     The  field   is  wide   and  the 


88  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

labourers  are  many,  but  the  ideals  of  leadership 
should  always  be  kept  in  view. 

Whatever  his  astuteness,  his  knowledge,  or  his 
political  sagacity,  it  is  essential  to  the  proper  rep- 
resentation of  his  party  that  he  should  be  a  man  of 
honour,  of  integrity,  and  should  be  unselfish  in  his 
work.  The  moment  he  puts  the  maintenance  of 
his  personal  power  ahead  of  the  party  interests, 
or  endeavours,  through  his  activities  as  a  party 
leader,  to  fill  his  own  pocket,  he  is  a  traitor  to  his 
cause  and  deserves  not  only  the  scorn  of  all  honest 
men,  but  particularly  contemptuous  repudiation 
by  the  party  which  he  has  betrayed. 

Above  all,  the  true  party  leader  should  recognize 
that  he  is  a  leader  and  not  the  master  of  his  party. 
He  should  always  be  content  to  abide  by  the  unco- 
erced, unintimidated,  and  unbought  suffrage  of 
the  party  members,  and  should  seek  to  support 
himself  by  candour  with  respect  to  issues  and  candi- 
dates and  by  honourable  management,  and  when 
his  appeal  to  his  constituency  fails  he  should  be 
willing  and  desirous  to  step  down. 

Now  it  may  be  said  that  this  is  a  counsel  of  per- 
fection. Certainly  it  is  too  much  to  expect  that 
we  shall  have  angels  or  archangels  in  political  work 
when  they  are  found  nowhere  else.     But  as  we 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  89 

have  party  organization,  as  it  is  not  to  be  abolished 
but  springs  from  manifest  necessities,  the  proper 
conditions  and  qualities  of  leadership  should  be 
recognized.  As  in  our  colleges  to-day  are  doubt- 
less many  of  the  political  leaders  of  the  future, 
here  we  should  expect,  if  anywhere,  the  standards 
of  public  morality  and  honour  to  be  set  up,  and  those 
who  enter  political  life  should  understand  that  they 
do  not  thereby  receive  indulgences  to  commit 
iniquity,  but  assume  obligations  of  the  highest 
importance  to  the  public  which  the  advantages 
of  training,  of  broad  outlook,  and  of  inspirational 
associations  should  in  an  eminent  degree  qualify 
them  to  discharge. 


90  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 


LECTURE  IV 

POLITICAL  PARTIES  (Continued) 

As  self-discipline  draws  the  line  in  individual 
conduct  between  use  and  abuse,  and  the  wise  man 
is  the  one  who  knows  where  to  draw  it,  so  in  the 
self-discipline  of  democracy  we  must  be  alive  to 
the  abuses  of  party  organization.  These  abuses 
tend  to  corrupt  the  very  core  of  government  and 
the  intelligent  citizen  should  not  only  be  severe  in 
denouncing  them,  but  most  solicitous  to  appre- 
hend their  causes  and  the  most  practicable  methods 
by  which,  in  any  important  degree,  they  may  be 
corrected. 

Party  organization  for  the  benefit  of  party  is  one 
thing;  party  organization  for  the  benefit  of  party 
managers  and  party  workers  is  quite  another. 
The  degeneracy  of  the  former  into  the  latter  is 
most  natural  and  is  due  to  the  working  of  self- 
interest  in  circumstances  of  peculiar  opportunity. 
It  is  natural  that  those  whose  main  business  is  to 
maintain  party  solidarity  should  concern  them- 
selves chiefly  with  the  interests  of  a  phalanx  of 


IN   DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  91 

voters  upon  whose  fidelity  they  can  absolutely 
depend.  The  constant  association  of  the  members 
of  these  groups  with  their  exclusively  partisan 
outlook  tends  to  deaden  the  sensibility  to  those 
political  tendencies  which  are  more  largely  reflected 
in  independent  opinion.  The  blindness  of  those 
who  make  a  business  of  politics  is  frequently  amaz- 
ing. They  learn  too  late  and  the  lessons  even  of 
condign  punishment  are  soon  forgotten.  They 
rarely  appreciate  their  own  standing  in  public 
estimate.  This  is  not  due  to  lack  of  native  ability 
or  of  skill  in  certain  methods  of  management,  but 
is  largely  the  result  of  their  own  close  occupation 
with  the  baser  and  more  sordid  motives  of  polit- 
ical action.  The  conditions  of  his  work  are  such 
as  largely  to  hinder  the  political  manager  from 
taking  broad  and  statesmanlike  views.  He  is 
constantly  subject  to  most  seductive  influences 
and  to  interested  importunities;  he  is  handicapped 
by  faulty  traditions  and  not  infrequently  he  regards 
himself  as  constrained  by  supposed  political  neces- 
sities and  by  the  like  or  worse  conduct  of  rivals. 

The  party  is  supposed  to  exist  for  the  sake  of 
principles,  and  in  our  national  campaigns  these 
principles,  so  far  as  there  are  such,  are  bound  to 
come  to   the  front.     Party   managers,   in   theory, 


92  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

are  supposed  to  devote  themselves  to  the  party 
in  order  that  its  principles  may  be  advanced  and 
thereby  the  community  be  served.  But  party 
organization  demands  work  and  a  corps  of  workers. 
The  effective  political  machine  consists  not  of 
inanimate  parts,  but  of  men  variously  related  to 
the  common  effort,  giving  largely  of  their  time  and 
in  many  cases  of  their  money  in  political  work. 
The  conduct  of  campaigns  entails  an  immense 
amount  of  labour,  and  between  campaigns  the  organ- 
ization must  be  kept  up,  party  questions  discussed, 
and  the  interest  and  alignment  of  voters  main- 
tained. The  average  American  of  aptitude  is 
busy.  He  supports  himself  by  his  own  labour. 
The  demands  upon  his  energies  in  the  maintenance 
of  his  family  or  in  the  advancement  of  his  business 
or  professional  interests  are  insistent.  The  Amer- 
ican slogan  is  "hustle."  The  prizes  of  life  go  to 
those  who  put  their  whole  soul  into  their  chosen 
pursuit.  The  political  leader  is  faced  with  the  neces- 
sity of  procuring  workers.  He  must  have  men  at 
his  call;  the  better  the  class  of  work  he  wants, 
the  harder  it  is  to  get  it  without  paying  for  it  in 
some  way.  This  is  particularly  true  when  there 
is  no  deep  feeling  with  regard  to  issues  and  assist- 
ance is  not  freely  offered.     In  order  to  make  a 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  93 

man  of  much  use  in  the  practical  affairs  of  politics, 
he  must  know  the  men  with  whom  he  deals.  Con- 
tinuity in  political  work  is  important  political 
capital,  because  of  the  intimate  knowledge  of  men 
and  relations  which  it  brings.  The  party  manager 
desires  constantly  to  maintain  an  effective  force 
of  men  of  political  experience  who  have  been  through 
former  contests.  How  is  such  a  force  to  be  kept 
in  the  field?  For  its  support  the  manager  naturally 
comes  to  look  to  the  public  treasury.  It  is  little 
short  of  inevitable  that  he  should  seek  to  quarter 
his  army  upon  the  people  at  large.  If  rewards 
are  to  be  given,  from  what  source  shall  they  so 
easily  come  as  through  the  opportunities  of  public 
place?  But  the  party  manager  needs  more  than 
men.  He  must  have  money  in  order  that  men 
may  work  effectively.  The  more  thoroughly  cam- 
paigns are  managed,  the  more  expensive  they 
become.  The  cost  of  mere  spectacular  demon- 
stration is  itself  large,  but  that  of  holding  meetings 
for  public  discussion,  of  providing  speakers,  of 
circulating  political  "literature,"  and  of  publish- 
ing advertisements  is  enormous.  The  expense  of 
placing  one  circular  in  the  hands  of  every  voter 
in  the  State  of  New  York  is  probably  upwards  of 
$25,000.     In  educational  campaigns  the  limit  of  the 


94  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

outlay  would  seem  to  be  only  in  the  amount  that 
can  be  raised.  In  order  to  provide  this  money, 
subscriptions  are  freely  asked,  but  the  manager 
naturally  desires  as  many  large  contributions  as  he 
can  possibly  obtain.  His  best  source  of  supply 
under  former  laws  was  from  the  treasury  of  large 
corporations,  in  whose  accounts  the  payments 
could  easily  be  buried  in  unmarked  graves.  Cor- 
porations holding  enormous  accumulations  for  the 
benefit  of  numerous  persons,  such  as  insurance 
companies  for  example,  found  it  very  easy  to  make 
political  contributions  to  advance  the  political 
opinions  of  those  in  charge.  This  practice  has  been 
the  means  of  blackmail  and  corruption.  Interests 
which  may  be  the  subject  of  legislation,  or  are 
under  the  supervision  of  departments,  do  not  wish 
by  refusal  to  incur  enmity;  or  they  may  desire  to 
purchase  immunity  or  favour.  The  necessity  of 
raising  the  necessary  moneys  for  legitimate  cam- 
paign expenditures  at  once  puts  the  political  man- 
ager in  an  equivocal  position  and  makes  him  the 
instrument  of  solicitation  and  of  promise.  But 
the  worst  is  yet  to  be  said,  for  he  finds  himself  in 
a  condition  where,  to  justify  his  leadership,  he  feels 
that  he  must  control  the  vote  of  the  venal  and 
corrupt.     His  conscience  tends  to  become   honey- 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  95 

combed  by  the  traditions  of  his  work;  he  sees  so 
many  votes  which  he  thinks  can  be  had  only  by 
buying  them,  and  which,  if  he  does  not  buy  them, 
will  be  bought  by  his  opponents.  To  him  polit- 
ical morality  is  a  dream  of  those  who  know  nothing 
of  the  necessity  of  "getting  out  the  vote"  on  elec- 
tion day  and  thus  swelling  the  total  to  which  states- 
men may  point  with  pride.  So  he  buys  votes  or 
winks  at  bribery,  either  lamenting  the  necessity, 
or  too  often  devoting  his  skill  to  the  enlargement  of 
the  nefarious  traffic. 

The  creed  of  the  party  manager  is  ordinarily 
very  simple.  To  him,  as  a  rule,  public  office  is  an 
organization  trust.  According  to  this  view  no 
one  should  be  put  forward  as  a  candidate  of  the 
party  who  will  not  "recognize"  the  party  organiza- 
tion; that  is,  who  will  not,  in  making  his  appoint- 
ments, select  the  men  whom  the  organization 
desires  to  be  selected.  A  candidate  for  nomination 
who  it  is  feared  will  be  independent  in  his  selec- 
tions will  not  be  permitted  to  succeed  if  the  party 
managers  can  compass  his  defeat  without  a  danger- 
ous irritation  of  public  feeling.  In  an  ideal  condi- 
tion from  the  organization  standpoint,  the  party 
managers,  or  in  a  single  district  the  local  manager, 
would   select    all   the    appointees   of    the    elected 


96  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

officer,  and  the  latter  would  simply  carry  out  his 
instructions.  The  condition  would  be  deemed 
tolerable  if  the  elected  officer,  desirous  of  some 
latitude  of  choice,  were  willing  to  make  the  selec- 
tions from  a  list  furnished  to  him  by  the  managers. 
It  would  frequently  answer  the  purpose  if  in  case 
the  elected  officer  had  decided  objections  to  the 
persons  recommended,  he  were  to  request  other 
recommendations  and  finally  make  a  selection 
which  would  be  mutually  satisfactory.  This  would 
probably  suffice  unless  the  party  manager  or  man- 
agers were  for  some  reason  especially  interested 
in  a  particular  applicant  and  determined  that  he 
should  have  the  place;  in  that  case  the  refusal  of 
the  elected  officer  to  make  the  desired  appointment 
upon  the  ground  that  he  wished  to  make  his  own 
selection,  would  be  regarded  in  diplomatic  language 
as  "unfriendly,"  or  if  it  were  supposed  to  indicate 
a  line  of  policy  would  not  improbably  be  considered 
as  an  unpardonable  affront.  If  the  purpose  of 
the  officer  were  believed  to  be  to  displace  the  party 
manager  or  to  increase  his  own  power  within  the 
party  machine,  his  course  would  be  vigorously 
antagonized;  yet,  as  being  more  consistent  with 
time-honoured  practice  in  contests  for  political 
control,  it  would  more  likely  be  condoned  than  if 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  97 

he  were  simply  to  assert  his  independence  of  the 
organization  in  order  that  he  might  by  free  selec- 
tion according  to  his  own  judgment  better  discharge 
his  constitutional  functions.  In  the  latter  case 
even  his  party  standing  might  be  called  in  question. 
It  should  not  be  understood  that  the  purpose  of 
the  organization  in  controlling  appointments  is  to 
put  bad  men  in  office,  or  men  who  are  incapable 
of  performing  its  duties.  It  is  generally  sought  to 
supply  a  man  who,  although  he  is  not  conspicuously 
fit,  is  deemed  by  the  organization  to  be  good  enough 
for  the  place.  The  primary  purpose  is  to  provide 
an  office  for  a  party  worker  either  simply  as  a 
reward  for  what  he  may  have  done  in  party  ser- 
vice, or  to  furnish  a  base  of  supply  which  will 
support  him  in  further  party  activity.  Excep- 
tional conditions  may  from  time  to  time  arise  in 
which  either  by  reason  of  the  special  demands  of 
the  places  to  be  filled  or  of  the  state  of  public  sen- 
timent, it  may  be  recognized  by  the  party  managers 
as  advisable  that  the  selection  should  be  made 
outside  the  lines  generally  laid  down.  But  such 
an  exigency  is  most  unwelcome.  In  the  view  of 
the  organization  the  successful  candidate  owes 
his  success  to  its  efforts;  party  work  cannot  be  effec- 
tively done  unless  public  places  to  a  large  extent 


98  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

are  provided  for  those  who  do  the  work;  promises, 
express  or  implied,  made  in  the  course  of  the  cam- 
paign must  be  redeemed;  the  party  organization 
must  be  recognized  as  the  supreme  party  author- 
ity, carrying  with  it  the  control  of  patronage,  and 
hence  the  elected  officer  who  refuses  to  act  within 
these  limitations  is  regarded  not  only  as  ungrate- 
ful, but  as  acting  in  hostility  to  his  party's  interests. 
The  injury  to  the  public  service  that  is  inflicted 
by  the  subordination  of  public  officers  to  such 
control  is  obvious.  Administrative  efficiency  is 
made  difficult  if  not  impossible.  However  strongly 
it  may  be  claimed  that  it  is  only  desired  to  put  men 
in  office  who  have  decent  qualifications,  the  tendency 
manifestly  is  to  a  low  level  of  public  work.  The 
standards  of  efficiency  are  bent  to  the  demands  of 
favour.  The  aim  is  not  to  get  the  best,  but  to  pay 
for  party  work  and  support  the  party  worker. 
The  party  manager  is  under  the  pressure  of  constant 
solicitation;  he  is  burdened  with  the  obligations 
of  campaigns;  and  however  good  his  general  inten- 
tion he  cannot  be  expected  to  resist  the  temptation 
to  put  inferior  men  upon  the  public  pay-roll.  In- 
cumbents regard  their  places  as  held  not  by  virtue 
of  the  public  service  they  give,  but  by  the  grace  of 
the  managers  they  have  served  and  continue  to 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  99 

serve.  It  cannot  be  supposed  that  as  a  rule  public 
work  can  be  performed  in  the  manner  in  which  it 
ought  to  be  performed  if  places  are  parcelled  out 
to  meet  the  exigencies  of  political  management,  or 
through  a  system  by  which  elected  officers  act 
under  the  dictation  of  those  who  have  not  been 
chosen  to  exercise  official  responsibilities.  Excep- 
tions undoubtedly  may  be  found  in  communities 
where  political  managers  are  astute  enough  to 
require  a  fair  degree  of  efficiency  and  at  the  same 
time  (which  is  the  most  important)  are  strong 
enough  to  resist  the  appeals  of  the  unworthy;  but 
these  exceptions  are  so  rare  as  to  prove  the  general 
tendency. 

Even  as  I  write  these  words,  confirmation  comes 
in  the  report  which  has  been  made  to  Congress 
by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  Speaking  of 
the  scandal  recently  disclosed  in  the  customs 
service,  one  of  the  worst  scandals  of  this  genera- 
tion, Mr.  MacVeagh  says:  "The  study  of  the 
causes  of  the  demoralization  which  has  been  re- 
vealed is  still  incomplete,  but  the  main  causes 
are  evident.  It  is  clear,  for  instance,  that  the 
influence  of  local  politics  and  politicians  upon 
the  customs  service  has  been  most  deleterious,  and 
has  promoted  that  laxity  and  low  tone  which  pre- 


100  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

pare  and  furnish  an  inviting  soil  for  dishonesty 
and  fraud.  Unless  the  customs  service  can  be 
released  from  the  payment  of  political  debts  and 
exactions,  and  from  meeting  the  supposed  exigencies 
of  political  organization,  big  and  little,  it  will  be 
impossible  to  have  an  honest  service  for  any  length 
of  time.  Any  considerable  share  of  the  present 
cost  of  this  demoralization  to  the  public  revenues, 
to  the  efficiency  of  the  service,  and  to  public  and 
private  morality,  is  a  tremendous  amount  to  pay 
in  mere  liquidation  of  the  small  debts  of  political 
leaders." 

We  have  not  simply  to  consider  the  demands 
of  organization  working  for  the  benefit  of  party. 
Commingled  with  these  demands  are  the  personal 
,  requirements  of  party  managers  eager  to  maintain 
their  own  power.  They  must  have  not  only  an 
army  of  party  adherents,  but  each  party  manager 
requires  personal  adherents  pledged  to  his  individ- 
ual fortunes,  who  realize  that  they  stand  or  fall, 
not  simply  with  the  success  or  defeat  of  the  party, 
but  with  the  continuance  or  loss  by  the  party  man- 
ager of  the  control  of  his  district.  Thus  we  have 
not  only  party  machines,  but  personal  machines, 
using  party  names  and  appealing  to  party  loyalty, 
although  the  party  interest  may  be  a  secondary 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  101 

consideration.  The  feudal  system  again  appears 
with  its  lord,  his  vassals  and  retainers,  and  the 
common  tillers  of  the  political  soil.  Within  his 
district  the  manager  needs  the  offices  to  enforce 
his  personal  authority  and  distribute  his  personal 
rewards;  he  dictates  nominations;  elections  are 
won  through  the  organized  support  that  he  fur- 
nishes; the  elected  officers  obey  his  will  in  making 
appointments;  and  the  administration  of  govern- 
ment is  within  his  control.  He  maintains  himself 
in  a  citadel  fortified  by  the  public  purse.  It  is 
extremely  difficult  to  depose  him,  not  only  because 
of  the  abundant  means  at  his  command,  but  fre- 
quently also  by  reason  of  the  complicated  system 
of  organization  and  of  the  methods  of  selecting 
candidates  which  favour  the  perpetuation  of  power. 
The  city  affords  the  greatest  opportunities  for  the 
development  of  such  autocracy,  because  of  the  ex- 
tent of  available  patronage,  the  compactness  of  the 
population,  and  the  elements  of  which  it  is  com- 
posed. In  the  full  play  of  his  influence,  when 
commanding  those  whom  he  has  placed  in  official 
position,  he  becomes  mayor,  common  council,  com- 
missioner of  public  works,  head  of  the  police  de- 
partment, as  well  as  sheriff  and  district  attorney. 
When  challenged  he  calls  himself  "the  organiza- 


102  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

tion."  If  astute  to  avoid  an  uprising  through  out- 
raged public  sentiment,  he  will  endeavour  to  give  a 
semblance  of  efficient  government  and  may  indeed 
provide  it  with  respect  to  many  functions  of 
administration.  He  will  not,  if  skilful,  interfere 
unnecessarily  with  the  ordinary  processes  of  gov- 
ernment; he  will  be  content  to  hold  his  army 
together  and  only  upon  occasion  to  impose  his 
commands.  But  when  he  interferes  his  word  is 
law.  Generally  in  the  city  he  will  regard  the  con- 
trol of  the  police  as  most  important.  For  the 
granting  of  indulgences  to  law-breakers  and  the 
tempering  of  police  authority  by  his  discretion  are 
among  the  main,  though  secret,  sources  of  his 
strength. 

Thus  is  created  an  irresponsible  personal  govern- 
ment not  only  unknown  to  the  Constitution,  but 
alike  unknown  to  any  admissible  theory  of  govern- 
ment by  party.  This  is  the  government  of  the  so- 
called  "boss."  Men  of  this  type  differ  in  respect 
of  ability  and  intelligence.  Some  may  have  a 
large  outlook  upon  public  affairs  and  seek  the 
support  of  disinterested  and  public-spirited  citi- 
zens by  frequent  use  of  their  power  to  public  advan- 
tage. Others  may  be  cynical  or  even  brutal.  They 
invariably  invoke  the  party  tradition  and  appeal 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  103 

to  party  "regularity."  But  the  "boss"  displays 
the  same  characteristics  in  whatever  party  we  find 
him.  One  party  flag  may  fly  in  one  community, 
and  another  in  another;  but  they  cover  the  same 
sinister  designs.  If  they  are  threatened  by  public 
measures,  or  legislation  is  aimed  at  evils  which 
thrive  under  their  protection,  they  unite  and  the 
divisions  of  party  are  forgotten  in  the  defence  of 
the  common  cause.  They  soon  aspire  to  influence 
beyond  the  limits  of  their  districts.  They  con- 
trol the  nomination  of  members  of  the  Legislature 
and  dictate  their  votes  upon  legislative  measures. 
If  the  latter  disobey  they  are  left  at  home;  their 
humiliation  gives  no  concern;  it  is  the  just  punish- 
ment of  treason.  The  presence  in  a  State  of  a 
number  of  local  managers  enjoying  power  in  com- 
munities of  large  population,  leads  to  the  effort  to 
create  definite  spheres  of  admitted  influence  and  a 
division  of  state  patronage  for  the  purpose  of  assign- 
ing to  one  or  more  control  over  state  functions 
similar  to  that  which  is  exercised  locally  in  a  city 
or  county.  Between  them,  these  managers  may 
largely  or  altogether,  according  to  the  measure  of 
success  they  attain,  dominate  a  state  legislature 
and  state  officers. 

I  trust  I  have  made  it  plain  that  not  every  party 


A 


104  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

manager  becomes  a  "boss."  On  the  contrary,  in 
many  communities  party  managers  have  neither 
the  opportunity,  the  aptitude,  nor  the  purpose  to 
achieve  such  distinction.  They  are  content  with 
a  more  restricted  sphere  of  party  activity  and  exer- 
cise their  influence  along  lines  which,  while  true 
to  the  ideals  of  party  organization,  do  not  aim  at 
the  domination  of  government  through  personal 
machines. 

But  the  abuses  of  party  organization  are  fraught 
with  other  dangers  than  those  which  involve  the 
impairment  of  public  service  and  the  maintenance 
of  the  personal  rule  of  the  "boss."  There  is  a  con- 
stant effort  by  special  interests  to  shape  or  to  defeat 
legislation,  to  seek  privileges,  and  to  obtain  favours 
in  the  administration  of  departments.  So  close  is 
the  relation  of  government  to  many  large  enter- 
prises, particularly  to  public  service  corporations, 
that  there  is  the  strongest  incentive  to  control 
the  government  in  their  interest.  For  this  purpose 
they  are  willing  to  supply  the  sinews  of  political 
campaigns  and  desire  in  return  to  name  legislators 
and  administrative  officers.  The  political  machine, 
especially  the  personal  machine,  furnishes  the 
most  ready  instrument  to  their  purpose.  The 
result  is  the  making  of  corrupt  alliances  between 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  105 

party  managers  and  special  interests,  the  former 
eager  for  power  and  money,  the  latter  seeking  pro- 
tection and  governmental  favouritism.  In  these 
alliances  we  have  the  most  dangerous  conspiracy 
against  the  government  of  the  Nation,  the  State, 
and  the  local  community. 

Apology  is  sometimes  made  for  these  methods 
as  necessary  for  the  protection  of  enterprises  against 
reckless  and  blackmailing  assault.  But  is  it  not 
better  to  rely  upon  open  argument  and  fair  dis- 
cussion of  the  requirements  of  legitimate  enterprise 
than  to  seek  protection  in  the  corruption  of  govern- 
ment and  thus  to  arouse  public  indignation  and 
widespread  resentment?  The  security  of  business 
in  this  country  cannot  depend  upon  the  debauching 
of  legislators  and  the  perverting  of  administration. 
The  final  foundation  of  successful  enterprise  must 
be  found  in  integrity  and  respect  for  law,  and  can- 
not securely  rest  upon  the  dishonour  of  our  institu- 
tions. The  more  important  the  undertakings  of 
business,  the  more  essential  is  it  that  they  should 
find  support  in  the  just  appreciation  of  a  contented 
people.  Shall  not  our  intelligent  men  of  business 
learn  the  lesson,  "Whatsoever  ye  sow,  that  shall 
ye  also  reap"? 

The   importance   of    party   organization    is    too 


106  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

great,  and  its  perversion  is  too  serious  a  menace  to 
permit  us  to  be  content  with  mere  adjuration  to 
political  managers  or  to  those  who  seek  protection 
or  profit  in  their  power.  But  what  remedies  are 
available?  Certainly  human  nature  will  not 
change.  The  political  field  offers  the  widest  oppor- 
tunity for  the  exhibition  of  its  infirmities,  and  we 
shall  continue  to  see  the  play  of  avarice  and  am- 
bition, the  schemes  of  selfishness  and  the  machina- 
tions of  unscrupulous  cunning  seeking  to  convert 
to  their  purpose  institutions  however  essential, 
and  methods  of  co-operation  however  well  designed. 
The  course  of  progress  lies  between  the  fanciful 
schemes  of  those  who  ignore  the  actual  components 
of  society  and  its  mixed  qualities,  and  the  let-alone 
policy  supported  alike  by  the  indifferent,  the  cyni- 
cal, and  those  who  despair  of  improvement.  That 
we  cannot  accomplish  everything  is  no  reason  why 
we  should  not  attempt  anything;  and  with  patience 
and  a  firm  determination  that  cannot  be  shaken  by 
ridicule,  rebuff,  or  temporary  defeat,  we  should 
seek  that  immediate  gain  and  the  next  practicable 
advance  which  our  judgment  may  approve.  This  is 
to  play  our  part  according  to  our  light  and  oppor- 
tunity in  the  long  struggle  which  has  brought  us 
the  advantages  of  this  favoured  day  and  the  issue  of 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  107 

which  in  our  time  will  make  for  the  happiness  or 
the  misfortune  of  the  coming  generations. 

No  remedy  is  possible  which  does  not  have  its 
roots  in  general  sentiment,  and  in  large  degree  the 
remedial  agencies  must  be  those  exclusively  of 
public  opinion.  Here  and  there,  of  course,  opinion 
may  best  accomplish  its  purpose  through  legal 
enactment.  But  tradition  and  common  convic- 
tion are  frequently  better  than  law  and  accomplish 
results  which  by  reason  of  its  necessary  limitations 
the  law  cannot  reach.  We  have  already  noted  the 
advantages  of  having  two  great  parties  in  the  national 
field.  Whatever  is  attempted  must  be  consistent 
with  party  activity  and  the  maintenance  of  national 
party  organizations.  They  are  none  the  less 
inevitable,  and  none  the  less  desirable,  because 
they  may  be  characterized  as  machines.  The 
loosening  of  party  ties  and  the  separation  of  men 
of  public  spirit  from  party  activities  withdraws 
the  beneficial  efforts  of  those  who  would  aid  in 
maintaining  proper  standards  of  party  work,  and 
tends  to  make  easier  the  control  of  those  who 
profit  by  its  abuse.  What  then  is  admissible 
which  will  not  improperly  cripple  efficiency  of 
national  parties? 

The   fact   that   the   great   parties   are   national, 


108  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

suggests  at  once  their  appropriate  field,  and  the  evils 
that  exist  point  clearly  to  the  conclusion  that  very 
largely  they  are  due  to  the  extension  of  the  work 
of  these  parties  into  spheres  to  which  they  have  no 
legitimate  relation.  We  may  therefore  accomplish 
much  by  seeking  to  limit  their  activity  to  what 
properly  belongs  to  them,  and  thus  to  narrow  the 
range  of  appeals  to  party  loyalty  where  party 
concerns  are  not  involved,  and  of  opportunities 
to  convert  party  loyalty  inspired  by  national 
ideals  to  the  personal  advantage  of  party  workers. 
For  example,  there  is  the  matter  of  judicial 
elections.  There  is  a  growing  demand  that  our 
judges  should  be  taken  out  of  party  politics.  This 
is  reflected  in  the  tendency  to  demand  that  a  judge 
who  has  served  faithfully  should  be  renominated 
by  both  the  great  parties  without  regard  to  his 
party  affiliations.  The  non-partisan  quality  of 
judicial  work  should  be  recognized  in  original 
nominations  as  well  as  in  renominations.  It  is 
evident  that  this  is  in  process  of  accomplishment. 
Where  judges  are  appointed,  this  tendency  is  shown 
from  time  to  time  in  the  appointment  of  men  of 
the  minority  party,  or  in  a  balancing  of  appoint- 
ments so  as  to  achieve  something  like  non-partisan- 
ship   through  bi-partisanship.    Judges    should    be 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  109 

chosen  by  reason  of  their  fitness  for  the  judicial 
office  in  point  of  ability,  integrity,  and  professional 
qualifications.  This  office  is  the  last  place  that 
should  be  used  for  the  purpose  of  party  rewards. 
In  communities  where  judges  are  elected,  tradition 
has  long  accustomed  us  to  the  nomination  of  judges 
by  political  parties,  and  wherever  the  sentiment 
is  such  that  party  nominations  are  likely  to  meet 
with  favour,  undoubtedly  they  will  continue  to 
be  made.  But  all  efforts  to  submerge  party  con- 
siderations in  the  choice  of  candidates,  to  facili- 
tate independent  choices,  to  rebuke  the  use  of 
judgeships  as  a  part  of  party  patronage,  should 
be  encouraged  by  the  public-spirited  citizen.  No 
one  should  be  expected  as  a  faithful  party  man 
to  support  the  candidate  of  his  party  for  a  judge- 
ship merely  because  he  is  the  candidate  of  his 
party.  The  sentiment  should  be  encouraged  that 
loyalty  to  national  parties  demands  no  such  sup- 
port, and  that  without  loss  of  party  standing  men 
may  vote  for  judges  according  to  their  views  of 
personal  fitness.  As  this  sentiment  develops,  party 
nominations,  where  they  are  made,  will  become 
more  and  more  a  formal  method  of  expressing  a 
sentiment  which  is  not  confined  to  party  lines. 
Ultimately  we  may  be  able   entirely  to  dissociate 


110  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

judicial  elections  from  national  party  considera- 
tions, and  any  practicable  measure  to  this  end  should 
be  adopted.  But  meanwhile  the  most  forceful 
influence  will  be  the  extending  conviction  that 
national  party  obligations  are  released  when  judges 
are  to  be  chosen. 

I  trust  the  same  will  be  true  of  prosecuting 
attorneys.  The  prosecution  of  offenders  on  behalf 
of  the  State  and  the  quasi-judicial  functions  of 
the  office  should  be  removed  from  the  field  of  party 
politics.  This  in  time  may  also  come  to  be  recog- 
nized in  the  case  of  the  administrative  officers  of 
counties.  Sheriffs,  county  clerks,  boards  of  super- 
visors, and  district  attorneys  have  no  legitimate 
relation  to  national  concerns.  Public  sentiment  in 
most  of  our  communities  is  yet  far  short  of  this 
view.  But  we  may  look  forward  with  some  degree 
of  confidence  to  the  time  when  citizens  of  counties 
will  select  their  administrative  representatives  and 
their  prosecuting  officer  without  any  sense  of  con- 
trol or  duty  by  reason  of  their  relation  to  national 
parties.  Those  who  think  that  this  will  impair 
the  efficiency  of  national  parties  are  intent  upon 
maintaining  sources  of  patronage  despite  all  the 
evils  that  flow  from  its  use  for  party  purposes. 
They   conceive   that   national   party  organization, 


IN  DEMOCRATIC   GOVERNMENT  111 

with  its  local  divisions,  requires  an  alignment  with 
regard  to  matters  of  purely  local  concern.  But 
this  misconception  of  the  field  of  national  parties, 
while  persistent,  may  yet  yield  to  a  truer  apprecia- 
tion of  civic  relations.  For  while  the  present 
methods  may  tend  to  provide  sustenance  for  party 
organization,  they  also  over-develop  it  by  giving  it 
opportunities  which  it  has  no  right  to  demand, 
thereby  entailing  abuses  which  could  largely  be 
removed  if  local  sentiment  enforced  a  proper  re- 
striction. 

Of  even  greater  importance  is  the  limitation  of 
the  influence  of  national  parties  with  respect  to 
the  election  of  officers  of  cities.  Municipal  gov- 
ernment has  put  democracy  to  the  blush  and  we 
have  been  disgraced  by  the  inefficiency  and  corrup- 
tion displayed  in  its  administration.  It  would  seem 
that  capacity  for  self-government  would  be  best 
shown  in  local  affairs,  particularly  in  those  of  great 
communities,  because  of  the  close  relation  of  admin- 
istration to  the  daily  concerns  of  the  people.  It 
would  be  expected  that  these  interests,  together 
with  the  pride  of  local  citizenship,  would  elicit 
the  most  active  efforts  for  economy  and  intelli- 
gent management.  Instead,  we  find  the  greatest 
waste,  the  most  inexcusable  shiftlessness,  and  the 


112  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

most  corrupting  agencies  in  connection  with  muni- 
cipal enterprise. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  intrusion  of  national 
party  politics,  with  the  divisions  and  cohesions 
caused  by  national  party  loyalties,  into  the  affairs 
of  cities  is  largely  responsible  for  this.  Their 
exigencies  have  furnished  the  basis  for  local  organ- 
ization with  the  control  of  the  city  government 
as  its  primary  object.  Such  are  the  opportunities 
of  local  administration  that  these  associations 
come  to  be  mere  combinations  for  the  enrichment 
of  their  more  powerful  members.  Concern  for 
the  national  interests  of  the  party  are  subordinated 
to  the  greed  of  municipal  parasites.  Whenever 
such  a  combination  exists  for  the  dominating,  not 
to  say  looting,  of  a  city,  the  first  duty  of  the  citi- 
zens is  to  demolish  it,  whatever  party  name  it 
bears.  The  movement  in  this  direction  is  making 
gratifying  progress  throughout  the  country. 

That  municipal  elections  have  nothing  to  do  with 
national  politics  was  recognized  in  effect  by  the 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the  State  of 
New  York  in  1894,  which  provided  for  separate 
municipal  elections  to  be  had  in  odd-numbered 
years.  In  the  constitutional  convention  its  presi- 
dent, Joseph  H.  Choate,  tersely  expressed  the  sen- 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  113 

timent  which  underlay  the  proposal,  when  he  said: 
"There  is  no  reason  why  a  man  should  be  mayor 
of  New  York  simply  because  he  is  a  Republican 
or  because  he  is  a  Democrat,  or  that  any  other 
municipal  office  should  be  filled  by  this  man  or 
the  other  because  he  belongs  to  one  national  party 
or  the  other.  The  questions  of  national  and  state 
politics  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  honest,  expe- 
dient, and  prudent  administration  of  municipal 
affairs." 

The  problems  of  municipal  administration  have 
long  engaged  the  attention  of  thoughtful  students 
of  our  political  life,  and  this  study  is  bearing  fruit 
in  recent  experiments.  The  adoption  here  and  there 
of  new  methods  of  city  government  and  for  the 
nomination  of  city  officers,  the  tendency  of  citizens 
to  combine  irrespective  of  national  parties  in  choos- 
ing city  officers,  and  the  growing  emphasis  placed 
upon  the  importance  of  concentration  of  adminis- 
trative responsibility,  attest  the  rising  demand 
that  organizations  of  national  parties  shall  not 
be  permitted  to  control  city  politics.  We  cannot 
tell  what  may  be  the  result  of  the  experiments 
now  being  tried  and  it  is  not  possible  here  to  dis- 
cuss their  individual  merits.  But  it  would  seem 
that    national    party    nominations    for    municipal 


114  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

offices  will  be  held  in  growing  disfavour,  and  that  in 
time  party  nominations  as  such  will  be  denied 
a  place  upon  official  ballots.  Other  means  will  be 
devised  for  expressing  the  will  of  the  citizens 
with  respect  to  their  local  interests,  quite  apart 
from  their  views  upon  national  matters.  Where 
the  sentiment  supporting  the  activity  in  local 
affairs  of  national  party  organizations  continues 
to  be  strong,  their  tickets  will  be  placed  in  the  field, 
and  proposals  to  eliminate  them  altogether  will 
not  be  successful.  But  the  criticism  of  this  activ- 
ity will  probably  increase,  and  the  disposition  to 
join  with  others  in  so-called  non-partisan  or  inde- 
pendent movements  and  thus  to  cloak  the  unwar- 
rantable intrusion  of  a  national  party  into  civic 
affairs  will  become  stronger.  The  aim  should  be 
to  cultivate  such  an  appreciation  of  civic  obligation, 
and  of  the  proper  sphere  of  the  efforts  of  national 
parties,  that  an  independent  attitude  with  respect 
to  the  selection  of  city  officers  will  come  to  be 
recognized  as  the  normal  and  fitting  attitude,  and 
that  the  nominations  by  national  parties  as  such 
for  city  offices  will  no  longer  find  place  in  the  polit- 
ical scheme. 

Freeing  our  cities  from  the  control  of  national 
party   organizations,    and    the    development   of   a 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  115 

system  of  local  government  which  will  aid  in  con^ 
centrating  administrative  responsibility,  will  re- 
move many  of  the  most  pernicious  abuses.  This 
will  not  interfere  with  the  proper  function  of  these 
organizations.  They  will  still  exist  for  national 
purposes;  and  all  the  legitimate  exigencies  of 
national  parties  may  still  be  met.  The  local 
"boss,"  however,  will  largely  lose  his  patronage, 
and  the  conditions  will  tend  to  favour  organization 
for  the  benefit  of  party  under  suitable  leadership, 
rather  than  personal  machines  constructed  and 
equipped  to  prey  upon  local  enterprise.  So  long 
as  national  party  tickets  are  presented  in  any  com- 
munity, and  in  whatever  field  its  efforts  may  be 
exerted,  it  is  of  the  highest  importance  that  the 
organization  should  be  as  representative  as  possible. 
With  respect  to  candidates,  members  of  party 
committees,  and  campaign  managers,  it  should 
represent  the  will  of  the  party  voters.  Where 
methods  exist  through  which  nominations  made  on 
behalf  of  party  members  are  virtually  dictated  by 
party  managers,  and  party  committees  and  managers 
are  thus  aided  in  perpetuating  their  control,  they 
should  be  changed  so  as  to  improve  the  opportu- 
nities and  thus  safeguard  the  rights  of  the  party 
voters.     I  believe  that  the  selection  of  party  candi- 


116  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

dates  directly  by  a  secret  official  ballot  cast  by 
properly  enrolled  members  of  the  party,  and  the 
direct  election  in  a  similar  manner  of  members  of 
party  committees,  will  be  an  important  protection 
against  the  abuses  arising  from  those  defects  in 
machinery  which  prove  the  obstacles  to  the  effect- 
ive expression  of  the  wishes  of  the  party  voters  and 
make  it  easy  for  managers  to  entrench  themselves 
in  power.  There  is  no  reason  why  this  should 
not  be  accomplished  through  provisions  which  will 
not  fail  to  recognize  the  value  of  the  advice  and 
suggestions  of  party  representatives  elected  by  the 
party  members  to  positions  of  responsibility.  To 
place  the  ultimate  right  of  choice  both  of  party 
officers  and  of  candidates  for  office  with  the  party 
voters  themselves,  thus  giving  the  ordinary  men 
who  cannot  make  politics  a  business  an  oppor- 
tunity to  participate  effectively  in  the  affairs  of 
his  party,  will,  I  believe,  prove  a  valuable  obstacle 
to  the  development  of  despotic  power  and  to  the 
misuse  of  party  organization  in  the  interest  of  cor- 
rupt alliances. 

The  further  extension  of  the  practice  of  filling 
subordinate  places  through  competitive  examina- 
tions is  another  important  means  of  remedying 
the  abuses  that  have  existed.     It  is  easy  to  ridi- 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  117 

cule  this  sort  of  test,  but  it  affords  a  far  better 
method  of  selection  than  is  employed  in  the  use  of 
patronage  as  rewards  for  party  services.  The 
shaping  of  examinations  so  as  to  develop  the  quali- 
fications of  the  candidate,  or  his  lack  of  them,  with 
reference  to  the  particular  office  is  a  matter  requir- 
ing close  attention  and  the  utmost  care  in  admin- 
istration. In  the  course  of  experience  we  find 
abundant  reason  for  extending  the  use  of  civil 
service  examinations;  their  propriety  becomes  ap- 
parent with  respect  to  positions  which  formerly 
it  was  thought  best  to  exempt;  and  the  tendency 
is  to  limit  the  opportunities  of  those  who  would 
use  offices  as  the  spoils  of  party  victories.  This 
tendency  should  be  encouraged,  and  it  is  gratifying 
to  find  that  officers  who  desire  to  equip  their  depart- 
ments on  the  basis  of  efficiency,  although  at  first 
somewhat  restive  under  the  restraints  of  civil 
service  rules,  learn  to  appreciate  their  advantage 
and  to  give  the  merit  system  their  cordial  support. 
The  chief  administrative  places,  which  remain 
exempt  from  competitive  examination,  will  con- 
tinue to  be  the  object  of  the  pursuit  of  those  who 
wish  to  use  them  for  party  advantage.  Against  this 
effort  we  must  rely  upon  intelligent  public  opinion 
forcing  upon  the  appointing  officer  the  conviction 


118  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

that  he  will  be  held  strictly  accountable  for  the  use 
of  the  appointing  power  so  as  to  secure  the  best 
available  service  for  the  State. 

I  have  already  spoken  to  you  upon  the  paramount 
importance  of  administrative  efficiency  in  view  of 
the  expanding  operations  of  government.  The  ap- 
preciation of  this  by  the  people  inevitably  will 
lead  to  the  selection  of  public  officers  who  will  feel 
their  responsibility  and  will  resist  in  greater  degree 
improper  importunities.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  people  desire  to  see  public  officers  perform 
their  constitutional  duties  of  administration  accord- 
ing to  their  conscience  and  best  judgment.  Divided 
as  the  people  are,  for  the  most  part,  into  two  great 
parties,  still  there  is  abundant  evidence  that  they 
do  not  desire  that  the  officers  they  elect  should  be 
controlled  by  party  machines  in  the  administra- 
tion of  the  public  business.  Their  support  of  efforts 
which  they  believe  to  be  in  the  public  interest  is  a 
lesson  to  those  who  would  make  party  organization 
a  vehicle  of  public  mischief.  And  the  people  have 
too  much  common  sense  not  to  recognize  that  in- 
sistence upon  impartial  and  capable  administration 
is  not  incompatible  with  earnest  devotion  to  the 
interests  of  the  national  parties,  but  should  be,  as 
indeed  they  profess  it  to  be,  the  ideal  of  both. 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  119 

There  has  been  much  legislation  of  late  for  the 
purpose  of  restricting  some  of  the  evils  we  have 
noted.  In  some  jurisdictions  corporations  have 
been  prohibited  from  making  contributions  to 
campaign  funds.  Such  contributions  are  utterly- 
indefensible.  If  they  are  made  to  secure  immunity 
or  to  gain  favour  for  special  interests,  they  are  an 
offence  to  public  morals.  If  they  are  made  simply 
to  reflect  the  political  opinions  of  executive  officers, 
they  are  a  violation  of  trust.  Provision  has  also 
been  made  to  secure  publicity  of  campaign  contri- 
butions and  to  guard  against  corrupt  practices. 
Political  committees  are  required  to  file  reports 
of  their  receipts  and  expenditures.  The  working 
of  these  statutes  in  practice  must  constantly  be 
observed  in  order  that  they  may  be  perfected  to 
prevent  evasion.  And  experience  will  doubtless 
show  the  way  to  additional  precautions  in  the  pro- 
tection of  the  purity  of  the  ballot.  Of  great  im- 
portance also  will  be  the  movement  to  which  I 
have  already  alluded  in  the  direction  of  reducing 
the  number  of  elective  offices  and  providing  simple 
and  short  ballots.  The  advantage  of  many  other 
proposals  of  improved  methods  will  turn  largely 
upon  the  facility  with  which  public  opinion  can 
be  concentrated  and  the  wishes  of  the  voters  ex- 


120  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

pressed.  So  long  as  we  have  national  party  tickets 
in  local  elections  it  is  most  desirable  that  straight 
party  voting  should  not  be  favoured,  and  that 
ballots  should  be  so  arranged  as  to  require  a 
statement  of  the  voter's  preference  for  each  office. 

The  perversion  of  party  organization  prospers 
through  ignorance,  indifference,  and  cupidity. 
Against  the  first  we  must  rally  the  forces  of  edu- 
cation; not  simply  instruction  in  the  elementary 
branches,  in  science,  general  history,  language,  and 
literature,  but  in  the  actual  operations  of  our 
government.  Nor  is  ignorance  to  be  looked  for 
exclusively  among  the  poor  and  lowly,  or  in  the 
congested  settlements  of  great  cities.  The  knowl- 
edge of  those  who  have  been  deprived  of  the  higher 
advantages  of  education,  with  respect  to  the  actual 
working  of  government,  often  puts  to  the  blush 
many  favoured  sons  of  our  higher  schools.  We 
need  constantly  to  deal  with  the  facts  of  our  gov- 
ernmental system  and  these  should  be  estimated 
at  a  higher  degree  of  importance  than  the  mere 
learning  of  dates  of  battles,  or  of  the  birth  and  suc- 
cession of  kings.  The  first  object  of  the  citizen 
of  a  free  community  should  be  to  understand 
its  life  intimately,  its  varied  social  and  polit- 
ical aspects,  the  course  of  its  activity,  the  charac- 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  121 

ter  of  the  men  who  are  prominent  in  its  affairs, 
and  the  nature  and  aims  of  its  influential  organiza- 
tions. We  delight  our  leisure  hours  with  the 
reading  of  romance  and  of  the  dramatic  situations 
of  imaginary  life.  Not  less  interesting,  not  less 
dramatic,  is  the  actual  life  of  our  own  communi- 
ties if  only  we  will  understand  it.  To  understand 
it,  if  a  man  be  healthy-minded  and  well-dis- 
posed, is  to  appreciate  responsibility.  It  is  most 
unworthy  to  take  advantage,  in  self-enrichment, 
of  the  opportunities  of  our  democratic  life  and  to 
refuse  to  bear  our  share  of  its  burdens.  Against 
cupidity  we  must  ever  set  up  the  standards  of  honour, 
and  the  more  sincerely  devoted  one  is  to  the  cause 
of  his  party,  the  more  steadfast  should  be  his 
opposition  to  every  effort  to  use  party  place  for 
private  gain.  True  loyalty  to  party  is  not  loy- 
alty to  selfish  manipulators.  True  devotion  to 
the  interests  of  party  is  not  fealty  to  faction  or  to 
the  personal  ambitions  of  party  managers.  True 
party  spirit  is  opposed  to  all  the  baneful  practices 
which  emasculate  the  public  service  and  thus, 
dishonouring  party,  lose  principles  and  statesman- 
ship in  low  intrigue. 

My  advice  would  be:  Join  a  party,  one  of  the 
great  parties,  according  to  your  general  agreement 


122  CONDITIONS  OF  PROGRESS 

with  its  record,  policy,  and  tendency;  appreciate 
the  necessity  and  power  of  political  organization 
and  lend  your  effort  to  make  it  wholesome  and 
effective;  stand  firmly,  regardless  of  your  per- 
sonal fortunes,  against  every  effort  to  corrupt  it 
or  to  use  it  for  selfish  purpose;  support  managers 
who  are  faithful  to  the  party  and  serve  it  for  its 
interests  and.  not  their  own;  stand  for  honourable 
candidacies  unpurchased  and  representative  of 
the  wisdom  and  best  purpose  of  the  party;  in  local 
matters  be  independent  and  keep  distinct  your 
duty  as  a  member  of  a  national  party  for  the  fur- 
therance of  national  interests,  and  your  duty  as  a 
citizen  of  a  local  community  to  aid  in  having  it 
well  governed;  stand  against  "bossism"  and  all 
that  the  word  implies,  and  aim  to  make  your  party 
organization  within  its  proper  field  representative 
and  its  leadership  responsible  and  accountable  to 
the  party  members. 

If  you  achieve  a  place  of  prominence  with  re- 
spect to  party  management,  set  yourself  against 
corrupt  practices,  expose  them  when  you  can,  and 
recognize  that  your  highest  duty  is  to  the  insti- 
tutions of  your  country;  believe  that  there  is  suf- 
ficient love  of  truth  and  justice  to  win  support  for 
what    is   well    conceived   and   faithfully  declared; 


IN  DEMOCRATIC  GOVERNMENT  123 

and  be  content,  while  making  those  necessary- 
accommodations  of  personal  opinion,  which  are 
essential  to  co-operative  action,  to  put  your  faith 
in  the  indisputable  principles  of  right  conduct 
which  would  not  be  compromised  in  the  open, 
and  in  secret  purpose  and  in  the  undisclosed  tran- 
saction should  be  held  equally  inviolable.  To  the 
extent  that  these  ideals  are  held  sacred,  our  essen- 
tial party  activities  will  be  a  benefit  to  the  Nation. 


DATE 

:  DUE 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S.A. 

A     001  012  852 


